Farewell to Moristotle & Co.

By Paul Clark
(aka motomynd)

It seems fitting that my internet went out as I was attempting to write this. I was drawn into the Moristotle family by accident, spent most of my time wondering if I fit in as anything more than the proverbial red-headed stepchild, and now an accident was preventing my properly saying goodbye.
    Over the years, Moristotle has become an amazing literary amalgamation that I hope somehow survives and evolves and gains more respect even as you, Morris, move on to other uses of your time. When I was allegedly gainfully employed in the magazine industry, I worked with various publishing houses across the country, but I never knew a group with more talent spread across a wider array of interests and perspectives than I came to know at Moristotle. I hope that you, Morris, and everyone involved, take great pride in what you have been part of.

Animated spirits remembered

13 Years Ago Today

By Moristotle

[Published originally on October 3, 2009.]

Having found Poet’s Walk gentle and fairly level last Saturday, I took my wife there today—and Siegfried, who was thrilled by the “new book” (as my wife phrased it) of all the unfamiliar scents he could put his quivering nose to. He and I had to walk ahead so that he wouldn’t in his eagerness continually run into her. But once, when we got far enough ahead (only ten or fifteen yards) for him to feel some disquiet apparently, he stopped and sat to wait for her, and in so doing reminded me of Wally’s doing the same on an autumn walk in Duke Forest two or three years ago. (I thought I’d blogged about this, but if I did I couldn’t find the post, unless it was “In the woods,” but the incident isn’t mentioned. I remember now, and mention here, Wally’s animating spirit.)

Three “little Siegfrieds”

 

Siegfried Dean as a pup

12 years later
all still beloved

By Moristotle

[Originally published on December 18, 2009.]

[The woman] who sold us our beloved Siegfried back in March [2009] has announced the availability of three more “beautiful Cream/White puppies.”

Moristotle is slowing down

Siegfried slowed down
too . . . before the end

And doesn’t
expect to
speed back up

By Moristotle

You may not have noticed that we have not published something literally every day this month, perhaps because we almost did. But the truth is, from here on out, there will be more and more days without a posting. I just don’t have the energy any more.
    But I continue to get a lot of submissions, which actually helps me, because working with Moristotle & Co.’s fine writers helps energize me and keep me going.

Dreams of day and night

Photo by Vic Midyett

By Moristotle

The first is a dream of night, real as real:
    Siegfried has returned from having left us,
    from being gone away,
    his nubby hair stiff in short sprigs
    because it is weeks past his last grooming.
    It feels so real on my imagined finger tips,
    stroking him as he sleeps on top of our covers,
    himself as real as a character in a drama,
    as real as the person he had been for us:
    daily, nightly, always, forever.

Remembering Wally Dean – 11 Years after We Said Good-bye

Wally, happy on New Year’s Day 2005,
on our back porch on Ironwood Drive
in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

By Moristotle

[Wally – officially Sir Walter Raleigh at the American Kennel Club – (May 19, 1996 to March 9, 2009) was about ten years old when I began blogging, so he never became as well-represented on Moristotle & Co. as Siegfried would become. In remembrance of Wally, I re-run the remembrance originally posted on March 17, 2009, which contained some tributes from staff members at the veterinary clinic that saw to Wally’s needs, including occasional kenneling.]

Aside from his human family, no one knew Wally better than the people at the vets. When I picked up his ashes last week, I was also given a card from the staff with these handwritten messages:

Remembering Siegfried Dean – a Year after We Said Good-bye

Siegfried’s special couch pose

By Moristotle

[In remembrance of our beloved canine family member Siegfried (January 24, 2009 – March 8, 2019) – and by “family” I refer to Moristotle & Co. as well as to myself and my wife – I re-run an item that was originally posted on February 10, 2010, “For Reina in Little Rock.”]

Prompted by a friend’s inquiry whether Siegfried not only looks like Wally [to be remembered in tomorrow’s posting] but also has a similar personality, I think this is a good place to report that Siegfried’s personality is actually a lot different from Wally’s. We suspect that he wasn’t well socialized during the seven weeks before he came to us (as we know for a fact Wally was), so he’s sort of fearful of noises, people he doesn’t know (or know well), and other non-human animals.

Siegfried:A personality like no other dog

By André Duvall

Morris and Carolyn’s love and affection for Siegfried was always so tangible whenever I came to visit them, and whenever I read anything posted about Siegfried on Moristotle & Co. I am very sorry that Siegfried is no longer there. I have many memories of visiting with him during my several trips to Mebane.

Ten Years Ago Today:Wally left us too

Wally’s last photo,
taken on February 22, 2009

Wally Dean:
May 19, 1996 –
March 9, 2009

By Moristotle

[An announcement of Wally’s passing was published on March 9, 2009.]

As March arrived, I was mindful that it was the month, ten years ago, that Siegfried came to us, following by less than a week the passing of another canine Dean Family member, Wally.

Siegfried Dean: January 24, 2009 – March 8, 2019

This photo of Siegfried
will continue to be my phone’s
wallpaper for some time

Words cannot suffice

By Moristotle

Siegfried left us this afternoon, after a few weeks of pain, growing weakness, skin surgeries, X-rays, blood tests, urinalysis, pain relievers, antibiotics, loss of appetite – through all of which he remained our sweet, uncomplaining, loving and lovable, constant companion. And we are at a loss.

One Year Ago Today: Unique new evidence for divine intervention

Remember: “God” backwards spells “Dog”

By Moristotle

[The first official “poop patrol” report for the Collington Farms development in Mebane, North Carolina, was published on December 22, 2017. During the year ending today, Siegfried and I have collected approximately 1,144 piles of poop. The number is approximate because errors are inevitable, and it is occasionally unclear whether one pile resulted from only one poop, or whether two piles were produced by a single poop.]

By the half-way point of our walk this morning (about 3/4 of a mile into it), Siegfried and I had found (and I had collected) seven piles of poop (presumably dog poop). Hot damn! We had just tied the record set only a few days ago. It had more often been four or five piles, sometimes six.

Unique new evidence for divine intervention

Remember: “God” backwards spells “Dog”

By Moristotle

By the half-way point of our walk this morning (about 3/4 of a mile into it), Siegfried and I had found (and I had collected) seven piles of poop (presumably dog poop). Hot damn! We had just tied the record set only a few days ago. It had more often been four or five piles, sometimes six.

By way of apology to the wild birds in our neighborhood

Written towards the end of May, just in case

By Moristotle

Besides missing Siegfried, who will be kenneled for the month of June, a sadness of being away from home, mostly in Paris, is the knowledge that our neighborhood’s wild birds will find no seeds in our back yard all that time. They won’t even find their favorite feeders. I took the favorite feeders down this morning to stage the photograph shown above. Though it may look inviting enough to you, I who delight in seeing & hearing birds there, find it a desolate spectacle.

Seventy-four (74)

“They say it’s your birthday!”

By Moristotle

It was about three months before his 75th birthday when my father died. The fact that he died when he was the age I am today has been giving me pause for some months.

First Monday with Characters

What long legs Envious has!

Edited by 
Morris Dean

Bettina Sperry, off to the races

While work on the farm had been settling down during the hot days of August, focus on my racehorse heated up significantly. There is so much more to horseracing than appears. Horses themselves can pose problems and race unpredictably, as has been the case with my boy. Horseracing is arguably hard on the people involved, for myriad reasons, though from the outside this can be conceivably difficult to understand. It is a world of constant problem solving, competition, and working towards improvement in racing – at the slow pace of one race at a time.
    I am also enjoying Franklin Hill's new thoroughbred foal [see photo]. Her name is Envious. At just a few months of age, she is gorgeous. She's a rough and tumble foal, and is mean spirited. She has been biting and kicking since day one on the farm. She recently left for her new home where she will be managed professionally during the months ahead. She is clearly a racehorse in the making.

First Monday with Characters

Edited by
Morris Dean

James Knudsen, from the 4th row

Among my many, hidden treasures – some hidden so well that I can’t find them, is a collection of old concert T-shirts from the 1980’s. As a teen-ager I made several trips to Fresno’s Selland Arena to see the headliners of the day; Cheap Trick, Van Halen, and The Scorpions were some of the acts I was lucky enough to see. And if my budget allowed, I would purchase a T-shirt that I would proudly wear to school the next day, and it would declare, “Yeah, I was there!”

First Monday with Characters

Edited by Morris Dean

Siegfried, at 6
    Siegfried’s sixth birthday was January 24. We commemorated the event with our cousins Duvall over lunch at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock [see André’s &Morris’s reports, below]. In the photo right, Siegfried, recently groomed, seemed unsure about being top dog. He's a modest companion, but demanding all the same. He has us well-trained, though, so it works out fine.

First Monday with Characters

Edited by
Morris Dean

Rolf Dumke, greeting trick-or-treaters

On Halloween night, a couple dozen normal-looking neighborhood kids aged between four to fourteen rang our doorbell trick-or-treating. They were dressed nicely as devils and witches, with gargoyles’ faces or with store-bought plastic monster visages, some as cowboys or with other costume party uniforms that were handy, but out of place for Halloween.
    It shows that Halloween in Bavaria is still stuck in a quandary: is it a kind of costume party like carneval, or what?

First Monday with Characters

Edited by Morris Dean

James Knudsen, in the garden

You're probably thinking, “enough with the bugs already!” But, this fellow... fella, I suspect it's a she, charmed me. She has made her home in the patch of mint off the back porch that has been there since my youth. And if you're wondering about the orientation of the picture, that's how I snapped it. Praying mantis' seem to enjoy hanging around upside down. They really do move in a three-dimensional way, forward/back, right/left, up/down. At some point this mantis decided, via her well-developed, binocular, stereoscopic vision, that I was nothing to be concerned about and started cleaning her forelimbs. That's what the camera has captured here.

First Monday with Characters

Edited by Morris Dean

The Rogers, going with the odds

Sorry I left you believing Janie had Parkinson's Disease. We were told a couple of months ago by our neurologist in Costa Rica that she didn't have PD, and we wanted to wait until we saw our doctor in the States and she had an MRI before sharing that happy news.