Ever since Marley and Me came out on Christmas day I have been dying to go. I somehow convinced my hubby to take me there for our 7th anniversary. He was NOT keen to go but my begging helped convince him.
Yes, that is a picture of me beside the giant Marley cut out gestering the #7 with my fingers. Total geek-o-larry!
During the movie, I laughed outloud (even snorted at one funny bit) and I bawled my eyes out. My hair covered the one side of my face and I had my hand up on the other side so the other movie goers could not see what a disaster I was.
When I read the book back in 2005, I could not help but draw parallels with Jenny & John Grogan’s life. Jeff bought me our labrador for my 30th birthday, Beli failed obidience school, we suffered a miscarriage and then successfully had two children … although in their story, they had three kids … hmmmm, we shall see about that one.
Life with Beli has been a hilarious adventure although we can also relate to how frustrating it can be when your dog is just like a big overgrown, hairy, drooling child and is just one more thing to deal with throughout the day. The barking just after getting a baby to sleep when I was a walking zombie and desperately in need of sleep myself was almost too much to bear at times.
Our top Beli moments include:
1. When Beli was 8 months old, he vomited in our car! This may not have been such a stinky huge mess if he hadn’t ingested a pound of butter (foil wrap and all) a few days before. I had put the butter out on the counter to soften and it had mysteriously disappeared?! I didn’t give it much more thought until the fateful day when he threw it back up in our poor Honda. Made for a nice long and cold drive out to a friend’s place with the windows wide open. We tried countless cleaners, deodorizers and other tactics but the car still stunk until we sold it 4 years later. We had it detailed just before we sold it :-)
2. Then there was the time he drank a bunch of sea water and pooped all over the kitchen floor. The sight and smell still haunts us to this day.
3. Beli loves the water and every year he is in dog heaven at the cottage. He would swim for sticks all day if we continued to throw them for him. He would lunge off the dock again and again to the point that he hurt his tail. When we got back from the lake one summer, we had to take him to the vet because his tail was obviously very sore and he would not sit down. The vet surmised he had “swimmer’s tale”, an unscientific term he used to describe this condition that he had seen in other labradors. His tail is permanently bent and we refer to it as a slight imperfection on on otherwise perfect body (this was a quote of my father’s that he used often).
4. One would think Beli would get smarter with age but after a recent incident on our camping trip last September that is not the case. Beli had been beachcombing and must have ingested a rubber fisherman’s glove. We did not know this until the glove resurfaced. Poor guy.
5. Recently Beli has taken to sleeping on the kids beds and takes turns between the two of them. The other night, Jeff peaked in to the kids room and saw Jamie spooning Beli. Too cute. He is so incredible with the kids and even though they chase him, ride him and pull his tail, he adores them as much as they adore him.
The day after we saw the movie, we drove up to Squamish to see the bald eagles during their nesting season and as soon as we let Beli out of the car, it was like a scene from the movie. Beli pulled me across the road, through the snow and up the hill while several onlookers looked on and smiled. Despite his obviously bad behavior, he immediately won over all of the strangers hearts with his puppy dog eyes and contagious smile. Thankfully he didn’t try to climb the trees or chase after the eagles, although he did attempt to go swimming in the rushing river but Jeff managed to catch him just in time.
I find dogs very therapeutic and they know how to console you without saying a word. When I was pregnant with my daughter and my father was dying in Winnipeg, Beli would lie with me and make me feel better. In one of my last conversations with my dad over the phone, he referred to Beli. He and Beli got along famously. It may have been that my dad was always first one up at the cottage and fed Beli (usually twice his normal portion), he would sneak people food to him and loved to watch him run when he was in “pshycho dog” mode doing crazy eights around the yard. The lake feedings are now Lisa’s responsibility because she sleeps in my dad’s old room at the lake. It is perfect because we have Beli trained to wake her up and not us!
Maybe one day I will write a NY Times best seller (this blog post is almost long enough to qualify as a novel) and Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston will star in the movie. I could probably just play the lead since I resemble her so much. Choke, sputter, giggle.
This post is for you Beli. Our first born and our faithful companion. You are part of the family and we love you. Woof.
Sue
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