Source: topteny.com
My Real Memoir
Open doors. Every year, as winter faded and spring approached, it seemed a new door would open, leading me from a darkened room into a new one bright with possibilities. Two years previous, I’d gone into the studio with my band to record my first album. One year earlier, I’d staged my first play as a writer-director-composer, and watched in happy disbelief as the audience stood and cheered, the last scabs of a lingering depression falling away.
But this year, like a badly listing ship, on the wake of plummeting grades and empty pockets, I’d drifted home to Mommandad, bringing my dog Ginnie with me. Mom loved Ginnie and was happy to see me. But every conversation with Dad had subtitles: “Why would you adopt a dog when you can’t even take care of yourself?” You know that performing arts degree you’re getting is worthless, right?”
So I avoided him as I drove off each day to finish my worthless degree, leaving him and Mom to watch the dog I shouldn’t have adopted. And every night I’d come home from play rehearsals and look into Ginnie’s big, affection-starved eyes, hating Dad for being right and myself for failing to prove him wrong.
I had talent, right? Maybe. I took Advanced Play Directing to try new things, and colored way outside the proverbial box. For an assignment in “anti-realistic” drama, the other students directed plays by celebrated European existentialists. But I wrote and directed a bizarre variation on Pinocchio, featuring a drug-tripping Flakey Frogmother (Fairy Godmother) and Lewis Carroll-ish narrative: “So, Wold Ed (Geppetto) sent the little bastard Nobody (Pinocchio) off to the big, red drool horse (big red schoolhouse) at the end of the rainglow.” After Nobody tells a lie and his, ahem, “whistle” grows larger, Wold Ed sends him to a convent. Two of the three profs who team-taught the class gave it an F. The third said it showed “signs of genius.”
Screenwriting was my favorite class, and my only “A” that semester. The professor, bless him, called my full-length version of the little monster movie buddy Jeph and I had started in high school, “Brilliant!” and added, “You have to make this movie!” So I did.
45 years later.
But those few bright spots vanished when I learned that, after slipping out of the house several times, Ginnie had gotten pregnant. “How do we handle this?” I asked.
“We don’t,” said Dad, “you do, either by moving out and taking your pregnant dog with you” (with no income, three months before the end of my senior year), “or by taking her to an animal shelter.”
Heartbroken and defeated, I found a “no kill” shelter. After walking Ginnie to a cage just like the one I’d rescued her from the year before, I told her I loved her, rubbed her ears and kissed her face, and tried not to hear her whimpering as I walked away. When that shelter door closed, it felt like every door in the world was closing. Forever. And on the way home, some invisible dam inside me broke. Unable to stop seeing Ginnie’s face, I wept for the first time…
Since I was a boy.
My Real Memoir is a series. To read the next one, click here.
😢😭
This is just heartbreaking, Mitch.
This is just heartbreaking, Mitch. I know that you carry this sadness with you still.
I do. And thank you, Steve.
😥😥
All is well, Mitch. Everything happens for good for those who love God and for those who are called according to His purpose.
I will never forget how much I loved our first dog, Bagel. Poignant, Mitch. Thanks.
And thank you, Bob.
Oh, no, this is so terribly heartbreaking what you needed to do. I am so sorry.
Thank you, Erika.
Giving up the pup is so hard! I hope she found a happy home. God bless, Mitch!
Oh, me too, Nancy. Knowing God is not bound by time, I prayed for Ginnie to have found that forever home when I wrote this today.
After Ginnie had her pups, any dog lover would surely have adopted her as soon as they laid eyes on her sweet adorable face. I’m sorry you had to part with her.
Thank you, Nancy. And, yes, that was my hope back then (and prayer now).
I’ve prayed retroactively too.
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This is too painful for me to “like,” Mitch.
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”―Helen Keller. Hard to embrace in the moment, but proven true time and again as we progress through the decades. May Ginnie rest in peace in the backyard of a family who cared for her as much as you did.
Amen to that, dear friend.
Wow…I’m sorry this happened to you and that you had such little emotional support
Thank you, Anonymous.
🥹😥A true and very sad story. Unfortunately, the lack of understanding of many family members makes us give up things we love, be it animals, talents or lifestyle. Thank you for sharing! 🙌🏻✨
De nada!
Beautiful god= dog 🐶
Oh Mitch, so sorry you had to give Ginnie away. That. is. so. sad. But I know that she found her way to a good home with lots of doggy biscuits.
That’s my hope and prayer, Joanne.
I am so sorry you had to give up your dog . My heart breaks for you.
Thank you, Anne.
A sad chapter in life. Dogs (pets) hold a special place in our hearts and memories.
That’s so sad. As a volunteer at a shelter, I see the heartbreak of turning in a dog all the time, but it never gets any easier. I’m so sorry you had to go through that, and sorry for Ginny too. Still, you did the right thing, as best you could, given the circumstances. Far too many people would have simply dumped her to fend for herself, and that never ends well. You gave her a chance for a new life, and that is huge!
Thank you for the kind word, Ann.
😢💔😭 <– Emoji talk for 'heartbreaking!' So so sorry you had to make such a sad decision, Mitch, and especially at an extremely difficult time of life. 😔
Thank you, Dori.
Oh Mitch…I’m so sorry. It’s such an awful thing to have to give up a dog that you valued so much. When I was 12 my dad had animal control take away my dog after it allegedly chased the neighbor’s sheep. I felt like my heart was ripped out when I saw the truck drive away with my dog looking at me through the cage in the back. It was like losing a close friend. Those memories never fade 😢
I understand, Chris.
Oh my…💔
you what? took Ginnie to a shelter? ARGH!!
Sadly, yes, and my heart still aches when I think about it.
I didn’t want to hit Like for this so I will just say I did because I Liked that you shared it with us.
Thank you, Venus.
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A good read. Love it ❤️
Thank you.