Tag: dogs

Margerumalia – Survival of the Friendliest

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – February 28, 2025

Dogs are remarkable companions who seem to be able to communicate with just their eyes. The photo of Angel above shows her speaking volumes with her eyes, stirring up so many memories and feelings that come rushing back to me even three years after her death.

My morning walk through the woods gives me a daily dose of canine affection as the dogs I’ve gotten to know stop and greet me. My wife refers to me as a dog whisperer, but I think I’m just getting affection from the ones who recognize a kindred spirit.

Lana, for example, a black lab mix with white feet, recognizes me from 100 yards away, gets permission to say hi, and runs at me full tilt like some kind of racing dog. I crouch or kneel to absorb her love-filled momentum, which sometimes knocks me over while I laugh like a boy. 

Gracie, about the size of Angel with mottled gray hair, gets so excited to greet me that she breaks into a prance, her forelegs literally dancing as she approaches. She appreciates the special attention of neck scratching and warm words. 

Phoebe, a full-sized something-doodle just recently got her hair trimmed and can see the world more easily now, including me. She also came running—again, with permission—and turned to let me stroke her back lengthwise, down to her stubby little curly-haired tail. 

Lyric is a long-haired border collie on tight voice command, whose whole body reveals her impatient enthusiasm as I approach. She’ll happily lick my face and then roll on her back for a generous belly rub.

Inside the Mind of a Dog – This Netflix documentary sheds light on how dogs broke away from the wolf pack to befriend human beings. Their expressive eyes are speculated to have had a lot to do with their connection to humans. The film lovingly examines that connection and how entirely dogs embraced that relationship. The documentarians coined the phrase “Survival of the Friendliest” to describe their partnership with people. 

If dogs could read, I think they would agree with most everything in that famous book by Dale Carnegie, How To Win Friends and Influence People. After all, they’ve been doing just that for millennia.

Did you know gray wolves and dogs, share 99.9 percent of their DNA? See Scientific American – “How Wolf Became Dog” (July 1, 2015).

Shortly after watching the Netflix documentary, the “Live Happy Now” podcast in my feed featured “The Secret Lives of Service Dogs, with Shannon Walker” (you can find it at livehappy.com, click on podcast). It builds nicely on the service dog portion of the film and shares the process of finding just the right dog for just the right service capacity.

I wish that humanity would finally learn the lesson of dog loyalty and the survival of the friendliest. The musical Les Miserables sums it up with this simple but profound lyric: “To love another person is to see the face of God.”

TTFN

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My middle grade novel, The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles, is available through The BookBaby Bookshop at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-most-amazing-museum-of-los-angeles

Margerumalia – Christmas from Japan 

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – December 13, 2024

Last year I got an unexpected gift for the holidays. It was a Christmas card (pictured above) handed to me by a woman from Japan.

Every morning I take a walk after breakfast, enjoying nature as I wind my way through the ravines that lead to Happy Hollow Park. The abundance of trees, squirrels, deer, and humans starts off each day with joy, especially when those humans are walking their dogs because I get to indulge in some puppy love. Some of those dogs recognize me from a distance and run full tilt to greet me like a long lost friend. Because, of course, I am. 

I also greet many other morning walkers who return my smile with a shared “Good Morning!” One of those walkers in Happy Hollow was a Japanese woman named Junko. At first she was quite shy about returning my smile and she clearly didn’t speak much English. The local university has many foreign students and visiting professors so that wasn’t uncommon. After several weeks she made eye contact more readily and shared a “Good morning” each day. 

In December Junko approached me with a Christmas card that she was carrying in hopes of seeing me again. That’s when I learned her name and that she was from Kyoto. Using the translation app on her phone, we exchanged several written messages and got to know each other a bit more.

At home, Junko had spoken Japanese into her phone and copied the English translation letter by letter on her card. This is what she wrote:

I have been here for three months and will be returning to Japan this weekend.

I was happy to be able to greet you every morning. Thank you greet.

To you it may ordinary, but to me it was special.

I’m sorry for the sudden, but I would like to tell you you that.

It’s getting colder. I hope you and yourfamily have a wonderful Christmas season.

12/6 / 2023

Junko Hotta

Years ago, when I was living in Los Angeles, I would drive my VW Rabbit across the desert for eight hours to see my grandparents who had retired in Sun City. On one visit my grandfather and I talked about greeting strangers and I was pleased to discover that he and I had the same habit of wanting to bring a smile to the faces of cashiers, wait staff, and passing strangers. He had been a lawyer in Iowa, very stoic and socially cautious, and I was an actor in LA, very outgoing and creative, but we shared the same impulse to brighten someone’s day.

I think Grandpa would have nodded amiably and approved of my card from Junko. I hold it dear in my heart and hope she’s happy and healthy in Kyoto.

I wish you all the joy of the holiday season and hope you get to share a piece of it with someone you don’t know. 

TTFN

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Margerumalia – Angel’s Birthday

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – August 9, 2024

We had to say goodbye to our beloved dog, Angel, about two-and-a-half years ago and we still miss her dearly. In my biography on the back of The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles I said that we lived with two cats—now one— and “the ongoing presence of a dog named Angel, who really truly was an Angel.” She would be eighteen this month and I want to tell you about how she appears on the cover of my book. 

In chapters 10 through 12, there is a dog in Eveningwhere that Leah and Vanessa refer to as Yin-Yang because of the tag on her collar. Angel often sat with me as I wrote MAMLA so I described her: “The dog appeared white in the twilight, but its short fur had a light tan shade that gave it a soft and warm feeling.” If you look at the picture above from the corner of my book cover, you’ll see that light tan and if you zoom in on the collar, you’ll see the Yin-Yang symbol.

Here’s the thing. 

When I sent my description of the book’s visual elements to BookBaby I only said there was a dog with a Yin-Yang tag on the collar. I didn’t say she was part yellow lab with a sleek runner’s body (part whippet, perhaps) but when I saw the cover design I immediately knew it was Angel. What a gift! She made her way into the book just as she had made her way into our hearts.

Tuesday morning I came across my neighbor around the corner who was with his son, walking an old chocolate lab who was huffing and puffing his way down the sidewalk. This was the end, my neighbor said, the tumor was blocking his breathing passage and they had to say goodbye. He wiped a tear from his face as he told me about it. There wasn’t much I could say except “I’m sorry.” So few words for such deep emotions. 

About an hour later on my way home I saw a woman in scrubs standing on the sidewalk in front to their house. She was filling out paperwork on a clipboard. As I got closer I saw my neighbor at the back of his pick-up truck stroking the body of his beloved family pet. I stopped long enough to rub his shoulder a few times. I had no words, but he said thank you and I walked home. He was in tears and mine started soon after.

They say our pets—our fur babies—teach us how to love and how to deal with loss. I suppose they do, but couldn’t they stick around just a little longer? I sure do appreciate you and what you bring to my life.

Be safe. Be well. 

Ta-Ta For Now, My Friend.

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If you received this email because it was forwarded to you by a subscriber, welcome. You can subscribe as well by following the link on my website: ericmargerum.com