HOUND DOG BLUES
Duke's doggone last ride home, a memoir of life and loss
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"So why is there still the sense of being ambushed when it seems now Duke is about to go down? For weeks, I ponder the idea that maybe this is how it goes for pets and people alike: You walk into some antiseptic medical or wellness office full of people in white coats, thinking you’ll dodge the odds like the healthiest of your buddies … and then suddenly you don’t … or it seems you might not. Some cold clinical machinery or document registers your new reality … as a patient with a pathology report. You’ve opened some hidden door so wide that cancer has crept in where strength and hope had thrived. You are sentenced over the next weeks, months, or years to be constantly fighting a dread disease, struggling to survive, find a miracle cure, or at least a hopeful remission. The clock stops. You feel despondent. Helpless. Too late. Poor Duke."
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About the Book
Nothing makes author Peg Gould smile like seeing Duke, her iron hulk of a dog, bound into the enclosed fields of the dog park near home with true hound-dog swagger, tail held high and wagging wildly. His velvety black hair and droopy jowls often are noticed and appreciated by onlookers as though they were sighting Elvis himself. Hound Dog Blues follows much of her reflection about life and death after she learns Duke has a terminal disease. Over the next weeks and months—in trying to serve Duke’s needs for exercise, rest, stimulation, and purpose, but also for effective anxiety and pain management—the author is reminded of the early death of her mother from heart disease decades before. Ultimately, she is persuaded that our pets, with their shorter life spans, show us the way and have much to teach us about love, acceptance, and graceful loss. This is especially so if you are willing to uncover the depth of an animal’s anchoring role in your life—and mourn the passing of a true companion.
About the Author
Author Peg Stomierowski Gould, MBA, RScP, LMT, a career writer/editor from upstate New York, moved west to Colorado, then Alaska, where she renewed her love of nature and photography on the stunning Kenai Peninsula. She is licensed both as a massage therapist and a spiritual advisor. Peg and her husband Todd raised a family with a diversity of pets in Manitou Springs, CO; they also enjoy working on their log home near Homer, AK. Peg's staff work appeared daily for decades in newspapers in New York and Colorado, and later for years in Alaska Business Monthly. She also has freelanced for Vocational Biographies, American News Service, Colorado Springs Health, Springs Magazine, Women’s Enterprise, and for other businesses and nonprofits.