Last week, the family and I were devastated to have to say goodbye to our 12 year old rescue dog, Ginger. All dogs are wonderful, perhaps, but Ginger was WONDERFUL and EXCEPTIONAL in so many ways. Sure, she was intelligent and fun-loving and affectionate, but she was the dog-of-my-life, the kindest, sweetest, noblest and most loving of creatures, who never once exhibited the slightest aggression, or even anger or frustration. She was, in a word, PERFECT–my North Star. The traumatic events of the final days are slowing receding, leaving in their wake just the sadness, emptiness, and longings. But we take comfort in all the happiness she brought to our family, and hopefully, that we brought to her for the last 8 years of her life with us.
In my last post, eons ago last spring, I wrote how Ginger’s love of tomatoes had spawned a robust “poop-plant” that kept us awash in tomatoes last fall. Remarkably, Ginger left us a final parting gift this summer: not one, but FOUR tomato “poop-plants” in our garden!
Her legacy lives on, and we will miss her greatly.
About Steve Caplan
I am a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska where I mentor a group of students, postdoctoral fellows and researchers working on endocytic protein trafficking. My first lablit novel, "Matter Over Mind," is about a biomedical researcher seeking tenure and struggling to overcome the consequences of growing up with a parent suffering from bipolar disorder. Lablit novel #2, "Welcome Home, Sir," published by Anaphora Literary Press, deals with a hypochondriac principal investigator whose service in the army and post-traumatic stress disorder actually prepare him well for academic, but not personal success. Novel #3, "A Degree of Betrayal," is an academic murder mystery. "Saving One" is my most recent novel set at the National Institutes of Health. Now IN PRESS: Today's Curiosity is Tomorrow's Cure: The Case for Basic Biomedical Research (CRC PRESS, 2021).
https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B006CSULBW?
All views expressed are my own, of course--after all, I hate advertising.
Sad Growls 🙁