Each morning, Arlene and I pass Cabrina playground – or Desmere Park – whatever you want to call it – but it’s where I used to take her to mingle with the other dogs and to play ball. She was a ball playing dog, that’s for sure. Then after Katrina, she developed a weird neurological issue that caused her to collapse when she over exerted. After costly tests including an eye specialist examining her, it was determined that nothing can be determined, so I immediately stopped allowing her to exert herself. Was this Katrina related? Age related? Arlene related? No one knows, but we did know that she had almost a hypoglycemic reaction to overexertion.
But every morning we pass the entrance to the park, which is a pathway between the Pitot House and Cabrini High School, Arlene stops to check her pee-mail (sniffing the areas where her friends have marked the spot) and then as we walk on towards Esplanade the Dave Alvin song about the man in the bed plays in my head, but Arlene is singing it:
The dog that you see isn’t me
I’ve slipped out my collar
And I’m running free