zenmindfrenchmind

I love that Tennessee Williams quote by the beauteous and bedraggled Blanche Duboise . . . and will now lift part of it completely out of context.

Honey Bunny and I went up to Monterey to see our precious friends Nancy and Nick.  Nancy is a collector of things unique and vintage and referring to my blog about French 75’s needing to be quaffed while wearing a smart cocktail hat kindly bestowed two amazing vintage ones on my very self.  And yes, people,when I have mastered the art of putting photos on this blog (or rather when HB has mastered it) you will have the pleasure of viewing them. They are simply smashing and one even has a “fascinator” of black veiling to it.  You cannot put them on without feeling sleek and feline and fabulous. Meow.

But kindness often goes way past hats and other glories of the temporal,and thus  . . .

Yesterday Nancy and I stopped in at the SPCA’s shop in Carmel and saw an adorable pup named Aimee ready to be adopted. Nancy noticed Aimee wasn’t having a very good day and took this comment home with her to Nick.  Nick who has a heart as big as Nancy’s (despite just having inherited two darling doggies already whenNancy moved in with him) agreed to have a look at Aimee the next day.  After a lovely Sunday brunch, the four of us set off for Monterey’s SPCA, surely one of the most organized, compassionate places of its kind that exists. 

Well.  But.  As we walked down the hall with so many wonderful,wonderful little guys and girls just begging, literally, for a chance to be loved, a tiny little black dog named Nicky caught my eye and my heart.  This little girl dog alone in a huge cage, was so small and shy and looked as lost as any creature I have ever seen and yet there was the spark of something special about her.  I knelt down and talked to her. And slowly she came up to the front of the cage,put her nose through the wires and looked me right in the eyes.  And that is when, after petting her I had to get up and walk away because I thought my heart would break.

Because after our recent move toCalifornia,with Warren Beatty dealing with all the changes and needing to be an only dog for a while longer,I couldn’t give Nicky the home I longed to.

Nick and Nancy looked at Nicky too then of course,went on to see Aimee,who wagged and woofed and seemed a different dog than yesterday.  They took Aimee out of her kennel and played with her.  She was cheerful and charming.  Just the kind of pup anyone would want to take right home.  And the two of them were ready to. 

But then they decided they would just meet Nicky too.  How different it was when Nicky was brought into the room, trembling, big eyed, overwhelmed (she’d been removed from a hoarder with 24 dogs three days before.)  She crouched beneath a bench, then shyly walked around a bit. 

Nick and Nancy talked about how good it might be to maybe take a dog who wasn’t so outgoing, who might have a harder time finding a home, then have a tougher time getting over the life she’d led.

Nick sat on the floor of the room being very still.  He talked softly to Nicky and patiently waited.  Then Nicky came very slowly, very carefully over to him and climbed into his lap.  And curled up there.  And gave a little sigh.

You know the rest of this story.  You know how Nicky,who is now called Emmie,came home that very day with Nick and Nancy after meeting her two new brothers and her cousin Warren Beatty who she started playing with in a couple or hours.  You know how she will give back much more than she will ever be given.

You know how a little kindness, how half a chance not even a whole one given to a puppy or a child or a stranger can change their life.  And yours.

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