year. There was the Christmas with the Alcock’s enlivened by an afternoon C-section. Two puppies were expected. Fran and the vet’s wife were standing by, I was study- ing a framed certificate on the wall to avoid seeing the incision… when the vet spoke to me “Hey… you… get this puppy breathing.” He handed me something minute on a paper towel… an unex- pected third puppy. When all three were breathing; Fran asked if I’d named the puppies. “Oh. Tinsel, Glitter and Miss Bah Humbug,” I hazarded. Miss Bah Humbug remained at Manticore and had two litters before she joined the Connecticut household. By then, Sarah and Chrissie had both died… the Waddley Grouse and Lady Gren- cora were living here. By 1994 there were two middle- aged Pekes… Waddley and Glen- cora… and one aged “Bug” who had been diagnosed with Addison’s Disease. Just before the Fourth of July weekend there was a message on the answering machine (anony- mous): “There’s a nice beige Peke at the Westchester Shores Humane Society… ” followed by a phone number. Having listened to the message twice, I spoke sharply to the answering machine… ”Yellow as a taxicab, big as a house and probably not a Pekingese.” Then I called the number and arranged to meet George. George was undoubtedly partly Peke, partly Tibetan Spaniel with a possible Chihuahua great-grandfather. And George was to be my once in a life- time dog. The Peke population died off gradually… mourned by both George and myself. Tiny Toad (Manticore Pearly Queen) arrived to cheer me… George, however, didn’t quite approve of her, although she adored him and did her best to convince him that she was enchant- ing and brilliant. Stuart Not So Little came after George and did think she was enchanting and brilliant but it took her eleven years to get used to his spluttery effusiveness. And now Toad is gone. A house without a Pekingese is hardly inhabitable and one won- ders who will be next on the scene?
and decided to call the young man to say I wouldn’t take Buddha. I opened the door of my apart- ment and found Buddha attached to the doorknob by his lead with a moldy waterbowl at his side. “Oh well, come along… ” I took Bud- dha into the apartment, threw away the revolting waterbowl and began a new adventure with a wonderful Peke. Buddha never bit me, but he air-snapped quite frequent- ly… always with a warning which sounded like QUACK! After several days he was renamed “Old Mister Quacksnap” or “QUACKSNAP.” The warnings and the snaps were probably related to health issues. He arrived with perianal tumors in need of immediate attention. The protocol that needed to be observed when approaching him involved his deafness and eventu- ally his loss of vision probably from small strokes. Quacksnap wasn’t to be woken up by a call or a touch… better to stomp heavily on floor close by until vibrations brought consciousness. He enjoyed visiting, especially my father, either in New York or Connecticut. On Fifth Avenue walks, we fre- quently met an elderly man with several Pekes. They were nice dogs, and the man spoke highly of their breeder, Mrs. Gatewood. When Quacksnap died… greatly missed… I contacted her and there was Woodgate Star Imp, a double Fu Yong of Jamestown grand daughter, who became Pip- squeak McFidget. Pipsqueak was pretty and opinionated. The col- umns she wrote for the Pekingese News were collected in two slim volumes “A Pekingese Keepsake 1979” and “A Pekingese Trifle.” When Pipsqueak died I visited Manticore, and met a lot of excel- lent Pekes… bred by Kenneth Winters and his partners, Fran and Ray Alcock. Helping at the kennel provided an opportunity to choose two of Pipsqueak’s relations (Fu Yong of Jamestown was the ances- tor in common)… Sarah Stoutly- Bigg (Nanticore Sarabande) and Chrissie Fruitcake (Manticore Bee- in-a-Bonnet) came to live in Con- necticut. We’d commute back to Canada for several months each
1997 George Sponge rehearses with Guy Wolff for George’s third adopted birthday party in Washington, CT. (Photo by Anne Mandelbaum)
2005
2006 George Sponge interviews a good friend. (Photo by Cyndy Brissett)
Tiny Toad as envisioned by Robert Andrew Parker “Tiny Toad at home, Summer Palace” 2008
Tiny Toad at home at Tiny Toad Hall...Washington, Connecticut (Photo by Cyndy Brissett)
Tiny Toad, Stuart Not So Little and the Great Respon- sibility at the Washington Art Association. (Photo by Cyndy Brissett)
2014
“Chrissie Fruitcake” nee Manticore Bee-in-a- Bonnet”… the second Manticore Peke to arrive. (Photo by James Balaban Deutschmann)
234 • S HOW S IGHT M AGAZINE , F EBRUARY 2015
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