Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Over a year now

I phoned the kennel today to book George in for our holiday. They asked if he'd been before and I said no, but our old dog had. They asked my name and straightaway said, 'Oh, was it Harvey?' He didn't stay there that often and not at all during the last few years of his life so he must have been a memorable guest.

It's been just over a year now since he died (July 31st) and I still call George Harvey sometimes, and we talk to him about his predecessor. For example, if George walks into a door we say, 'Harvey would be proud of you!'

George is still at the 'I want to be friends and play with everyone' stage; Harvey during his lifetime, adopted the 'I'll just pretend I'm a statue and no-one will notice me' line of action, when we were out and we'd see another dog. The size of the dog was irrelevant; Harvey didn't like to take chances. He'd been caught out too often.

So when he stayed at the kennels they let him occupy a kennel near the door so he didn't have to walk the gauntlet between two rows of barking dogs to get out to run. That probably made him memorable. That and the fact he was the handsomest and loveliest dog in the world.
Not to be outdone, George does his 'sitting at ma piano jest the other day.' And I realise I have absolutely no idea where that phrase comes from.

Postscript: Found it in Wikipedia.

British comedian Eric Morecambe would occasionally break into an impression of (Jimmy)Durante on the Morecambe and Wise Show while wearing a plastic cup on his nose, miming piano-playing and putting on a fake accent to say: "Sitting at my pianna the udder day..."

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

It' Jimmy durant's take on 'The Lost Chord'. 'They said Louis was mad...
They said my uncle was mad... My uncle was mad!'
Memorable stuff.

CherryPie said...

That is just so cute ;-) :-)

jmb said...

For years Cleo our Westie loved going to the kennel, she just loved all those other dogs but in the last several years we had to make other arrangements as it just wasn't so much fun as she got older.

Dogs are so endlessly entertaining, aren't they?

Leslie: said...

My Robbie likes to lick up the leftover coffee frappacino from Starbucks and I caught a shot of him once with the cup stuck on his nose. Hilarious!

Anonymous said...

Ah, good old Schnozzle Durante, as he was also known. I hope George gets on ok at the kennels.

Rose said...

What a great way to end my evening--leave it to George to make me laugh!
I didn't realize it had only been a year since Harvey passed on. It's been three years already since our Roco passed, and I still find myself saying to my daughters, "Remember how Roco loved blueberry muffins? or cheeseburgers?" or countless other things he did. You just can't forget a special pet.
Hope George gets along at the kennel...and I hope they don't leave any gates open:)

Puss-in-Boots said...

A year since Harvey passed away!! Time has flown. It's over a year since I last Oscar and like you missing Harvey, I still miss Oscar. It was mainly his personality...he had plenty...and the fact that he thought he was a dog.

I remember Eric Morcombe doing that particular sketch...and George has it off to perfection.

Lindsay said...

Mac,our long passed on black labrador, once hoovered up a MacDonalds Chip Pot which stuck on the end of his nose. We were walking on Plymouth Hoe at the time - we did not notice Mac and his appendage for some time and could not understand why people were laughing. The flowerpot reminds me of another labrador we had called Dodger. I took him to classes. We had to put one of our socks under one of ten flowerpots for our dog to sniff out and bring back. All dogs succeeded except Dodger, he picked up all the flowerpots one by one and brought them back to me. From then on he was 'teacher's pet'.

Liz Hinds said...

I don't remember much about Jimmy Durante, aileni, but reading about him it sounds like he was a good man as well as funny.

Hi, cherrypie!

They are, jmb.

Dogs everywhere have the same habits, obviously, leslie!

Siani, I'm sure he will be fine.

The kennels lady asked me if there was anything she should know about George. I sadi, 'He's an escape artist.' She said they were used to that and have very good security!

They all have very distinct personalities, don't they, puss?

Oh, lindsay, that's so funny! And so typical of the labrador/retriever breeds.

Anonymous said...

You make me giggle Liz, thank you.

xx

Anonymous said...

i had a gsx and she used to do the same thing with flowerpots, thankyou for reminding me!

DeeJay said...

Unbelievable that it is now more than 12 months since we all lost Harvey from the blogsphere

As Siani says Jimmy Durante's nickname was 'Schnozzle' in respect of his rather large nose - hence the paper cup for Eric Morecambe and the flower pot for Geaorge!

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Oh, Liz, we all remember Harvey with love. It is a compliment to him that you wanted another dog o soon and I'm sure George knows he comes from a proud line xx