Chalow Preece-Ball April 29, 1991 (est) -- September 10, 2007

Life is simple for dogs. Food, pats, elimination. Mommy and Daddy will decide when you need a bath, a dip, a visit to the vet. Have a nasty tumor? No insurance? Mom and Dad will pay for surgery and have it sent to A&M for evaluation. Liver failing? No matter. Special diet and expensive pills available. M&D will get for you. Sadly, we have to make a lot of decisions for our little furry creatures. We made the hardest one for Chalow yesterday. Her pendulous tumors weighed so much that her weight was unchanged in spite of a lack of muscle tissue around her bones. She was having trouble standing and walking and was incontinent more and more. She finally seemed miserable after putting on a brave face through many illnesses and troubles.

I'll miss walking her and taking pictures of her cute little face (before the gray nose and cloudy eyes) in different settings. We've had one or two dogs in the house for twenty-six years. People would ask about the dog going to the condo. I knew that she wouldn't last that long and it made me sad. But that's life. Chalow was sixteen years and four months old. She was born approximately the same time that we lost our Old English Sheepdog, Oscar. We always said she had his soul. It was a good, cuddly, loving soul. Hopefully, it's inhabiting a fluffy puppy at this moment.

Connected

Sunday night we went to a script reading. It was a pleasant Austin group gathered to listen to the script for Anne Rapp's "Double Wide." A group of actors did a great job of rendering it. On stage were the likes of Johnny Hardwick (one of his characers, the sheriff, sounded suspiciously like Dale Griblle) and Ray Benson. In the audience were folks like Bill Witliff and Bud Shrake and Janet Pierson. During the reception before the event FFP pointed out an attractive blonde, apparently alone. When he'd been in the drink line, he said, she was friendly so we went over to talk. She was an actress. Who had moved to Austin. She'd gotten a little work, too. But, of course, she waits tables. As actresses do.

The reading was fun. FFP introduced the actress to some of the movers and shakers.

This afternoon we called the restaurant where the actress works. I would link to her actress page but I don't know if actresses like to be associated with their restaurant jobs. Anyway, the restaurant is Bess. Bistro Bess. It's in the historic Stratford Arms building which was once a hotel. This restaurant has been associated with Sandra Bullock. This is not something that interests me. I'm a celebrity agnostic. No. We were going to dine at Bess because (1) the actress worked there (the unknown one we just met); and (2) it's a bistro and we don't have that many in Austin (mussels, pommes frites). However, they don't take reservations. For the record, I prefer places that take reservations.

We enjoyed the food well enough (although I'd give it fewer stars than Capitol Brasserie), we enjoyed talkng to the waitress, it turns out we knew the hostess and we were amused to see that Dale Rice had slipped into the restaurant undetected. (He's the food critic of the local paper, The Austin American-Statesman.) We didn't see any celebrities. Which is fine. Best even.

By the way, today we have an old picture of Chalow. Because Bess doesn't allow photos. Because of the paparazzi I guess. And old Chalow...she looks better than any pommes frite!