The LuLac Edition #259, July 6th, 2007

PHOTO INDEX: McKINLEY THE DOG AND McKINLEY THE PRESIDENT.

GORT STARTED IT!!

A few weeks ago, Gort posted a photo of his late canine on his blog. I've been meaning to tell you about my dog because believe it or not there is a political connection. McKinley became a member of our family in the fall of 1999 over my opposition. As a kid, I never had a dog and acquired one in 1980 when I began to become involved with Mrs. LuLac and her family. By osmosis, dumb luck or happenstance, Montgomery became my dog. When my luggage landed on the lawn, so did he. Needless to say we were joined at the hip. Monty died at the age of 18 and 1/2 on March 8th, 1998 at 7:30PM on a Sunday. The vet told Mrs. LuLac I willed the last three years out of him shooting him with insuline to ward off his diabetes. I think it was a mutual willing of survival on both our parts until his body just wore out. Fittingly, he is immortalized in my book, "A Radio Story/We Wish You Well In Your Future Endeavors". In the book, he dies surrounded by myself and two hotties, in real life, it was him, me and my mother in law. (She gets a lifetime pass for that service). Anyway, as the months passed, I was persuaded we should get a new dog. I relented but insisted on naming the dog. My first pick was "Albert Flasher" after the 1970s Guess Who song. Mrs. LuLac vetoed that one and my sister, an oldies afficianado had no idea about the second tier hit of the Guess Who. To be topical, I then came up with "A-Gore" but that was rejected too. With the news of the day and politics never being far from my mind, I came up with a historical angle. Since the end of the century was closing in, why not name the dog after the first President of the 20th century, William McKinley of the great state of Ohio. President McKinley was known as a rather boring man and was shot in 1901 but the name and the circumstance were aligned with the human and canine stars. So it was agreed our new dog's name became McKinley. He roams the yard but stays respectfully away from the gravesite of his predecessor, he barks at fireworks and the image of Richard Cheney on TV, howls like a wounded animal when he hears a baby cry, essentially ignores me and follows Mrs. LuLac around until she goes out of town (then I'm his best buddy) and sleeps 19 hours a day. His life is almost as good as mine.