Ari (Tater-Pup)
Efrat and I had a few dogs over the years (mainly Poogy… at the end of our house on Sherwood Ave in Wheeling WV were two neighbors -- one had a female amber colored retriever and the other neighbor had a male white shepherd.. Neither were neutered!!! They had an unplanned (duh!) litter together… and Efrat heard that the puppies were ready and went to see them… she brought home one!!!!!!.... We both immediately fell in love and named him Poogy. We so loved that dog.)
When we moved to Austin we never thought of getting a dog… but!... on day after the girls had left the nest Ella called us to ask if we could baby-sit one of her foster dogs for the weekend… she had a new family ready to adopt the dog but she had to go out of town for the weekend… we said sure and Ella dropped him off… he was a weird looking quirky dog (newly rescued and hair shaved cept for that ChowChow head/mane)...
Something very strange happened… it wasn't more than a minute since Ella left and both Efrat and I ran to the phone at the same time to tell Ella that HE WAS OUR DOG. Ella argued about the family that was waiting to adopt him… we both said no way!...
Unbeknownst to us Ari had some kind of orthopedic condition that wouldn't allow him to run and made it difficult to walk (sound familiar???-- when i first met Efrat maybe on the 2nd date i asked her to go on a walk with me (at this time Efrat hadn't told me about her orthopedic/marfans conditions) Efrat said that she didn't like walks. ( i had no idea)
.
We both quickly developed a very deep bond with Ari (Efrat called him Ari and i called him Tater-Pup)... Because Efrat couldn't walk him too far.. I took him on 2+ long walks a day around the neighborhood… you could see that Ari had some difficulty with these walks and many times i had to call Efrat to drive to pick us up because Ari could walk any further.
.
After Efrat and I got divorced i drove to her house 3++ times a week to take Ari on his beloved walks. I would spend time at Efrats house on these occasions and i am convinced that it was these hours spent with post-divorce Efrat that shifted the divorce-relationship (i'm not in your life anymore) to a relationship based on the love we had for each other… the many times we spent together after the divorce were so so so wonderful… i would hang out for hours with her… take her to dinner (her favorite was Luby’s liver & onions!)… go with her to lectures and temple things… one of the most wonderful memories i have - Efrat would bring Ari to the temple every saturday morning when she would go to services… i would bring my LB and Margaret's Boogs… i would be waiting in the temple parking lot with my doggies and Efrat would pull into the lot with Tater-Pup sitting up in the passenger seat looking for me… i would then take all 3 dogs on a walk around the temple and around the nearby neighborhood then i would take them back to Margaret's… Efrat would usually come over after services, have a cup of tea and hang out for a while before leaving.
CLICK HERE to watch Ari walking in Efrats neighborhood ( he steps over every single sidewalk crack!)
Efrat and I had a few dogs over the years (mainly Poogy… at the end of our house on Sherwood Ave in Wheeling WV were two neighbors -- one had a female amber colored retriever and the other neighbor had a male white shepherd.. Neither were neutered!!! They had an unplanned (duh!) litter together… and Efrat heard that the puppies were ready and went to see them… she brought home one!!!!!!.... We both immediately fell in love and named him Poogy. We so loved that dog.)
When we moved to Austin we never thought of getting a dog… but!... on day after the girls had left the nest Ella called us to ask if we could baby-sit one of her foster dogs for the weekend… she had a new family ready to adopt the dog but she had to go out of town for the weekend… we said sure and Ella dropped him off… he was a weird looking quirky dog (newly rescued and hair shaved cept for that ChowChow head/mane)...
Something very strange happened… it wasn't more than a minute since Ella left and both Efrat and I ran to the phone at the same time to tell Ella that HE WAS OUR DOG. Ella argued about the family that was waiting to adopt him… we both said no way!...
Unbeknownst to us Ari had some kind of orthopedic condition that wouldn't allow him to run and made it difficult to walk (sound familiar???-- when i first met Efrat maybe on the 2nd date i asked her to go on a walk with me (at this time Efrat hadn't told me about her orthopedic/marfans conditions) Efrat said that she didn't like walks. ( i had no idea)
.
We both quickly developed a very deep bond with Ari (Efrat called him Ari and i called him Tater-Pup)... Because Efrat couldn't walk him too far.. I took him on 2+ long walks a day around the neighborhood… you could see that Ari had some difficulty with these walks and many times i had to call Efrat to drive to pick us up because Ari could walk any further.
.
After Efrat and I got divorced i drove to her house 3++ times a week to take Ari on his beloved walks. I would spend time at Efrats house on these occasions and i am convinced that it was these hours spent with post-divorce Efrat that shifted the divorce-relationship (i'm not in your life anymore) to a relationship based on the love we had for each other… the many times we spent together after the divorce were so so so wonderful… i would hang out for hours with her… take her to dinner (her favorite was Luby’s liver & onions!)… go with her to lectures and temple things… one of the most wonderful memories i have - Efrat would bring Ari to the temple every saturday morning when she would go to services… i would bring my LB and Margaret's Boogs… i would be waiting in the temple parking lot with my doggies and Efrat would pull into the lot with Tater-Pup sitting up in the passenger seat looking for me… i would then take all 3 dogs on a walk around the temple and around the nearby neighborhood then i would take them back to Margaret's… Efrat would usually come over after services, have a cup of tea and hang out for a while before leaving.
CLICK HERE to watch Ari walking in Efrats neighborhood ( he steps over every single sidewalk crack!)