Farewell Sweet Mac

Mac was a very special guy. Smart, kind, funny. He amazed us early on, by waiting to be invited to eat his breakfast rather than diving in with reckless abandon. As a pup he ate every one of David's slippers, but never mine. I felt left out.

He travelled up and down the East Coast with us, and was always the perfect companion and hotel guest. He shared our ups and downs, our food, our cars, our bedrooms and our hearts. He joined us at the drive in, ate with us at outdoor restaurants--and yes he was always better behaved than the children--shopped 'til he dropped, came to the office on Bring Your Children to Work Day, rode in a bicycle trailer and on the back of the Seacycle. As his arthritis crippled him, he adapted by riding in his wagon, complete with umbrella and water bowl.

When he could still hear, he had the uncanny ability to hear the mail truck at least a block away and announce its impending arrival with great gusto. He would bark the entire time the mailman was on the street and then launch into heightened hysteria when the mail was actually placed in our box. When meeting eye ball to eye ball, Mac stood just beyond the mailman's reach and barked. The mailman laughed. Mac once launched into a frenzy of barking while in the car. The reason: There was a mail truck behind us.

Mac despised anything with a handle. Shovels, rakes, brooms, vacuum cleaners were all his sworn enemies--smart dog!

Mac may have been a bit shy around people, but never around the camera. Bring out a camera and his head poppped up, he squared his shoulders and looked directly at the lens. Perhaps that's why we have hundreds of pictures.

Through his all too frequent visits to the dreaded veterinarian, he never snarled or cried, despite the ache in his joints. They said he was stoic. He did, however, always hide under the chair, pretending he was invisible, and seemed to believe the scale would protect him from the poking and prodding he hated.

Mac was a friend, a confidant, a member of the family. People should be so nice.

He was the poo dog, the pie dog, the sweetie petitie, the buddy dog, the beauty dog, the Mac, THE DOG, the macaroni dog, the macaroni and cheese dog, the macadamia nut crunch dog, MacGregor Dundee BDA (Best Dog in America), MacGregor Dundee WWW (Best Dog in the Whole Wide World), magoo.