Old Dog

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“Thou shalt rise up… and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD.”
-- Leviticus 19:32

Part of this verse hangs on signs in Israeli public buses.
I rarely approve of the mixing of Church (or Synagogue) and State… but that’s a really nice rule.

Walking through Jerusalem, you can’t go more than 10 minutes without seeing repeated images: cats in the dumpsters; Orthodox Jews dressed in black, walking briskly… somewhere; honking, hairy cab drivers, and elderly people being pushed in wheelchairs by Filipino nurses.
In the last 20 years there has been a huge influx of Filipinos into Israel. They are the prime employees in the assisted living job market. Filipino men and women helping elderly Jews… why not?
The only other Asians I have seen in this country have worked in sushi restaurants (honestly). The more, the mellier!

Now, back to geezers:
In January of 1990, when I was 7 ½ years old, my family got a dog. A beagle. We named her Peanut. She was adorable, quiet, and we all took turns walking her and carrying her crap in little sandwich bags. It was a full life (and a full sandwich bag).
She lived a long, fat, happy life.
But the last couple of years were rough on my parents. Peanut had trouble walking, she couldn’t get to the front door in time to… fill a sandwich bag. So my parents bought “doggie diapers,” which are exactly what they sound like… just like human diapers except with a hole for the dog’s tail. Sad, quite sad.

When has a pet lived long enough? Who can say?
Most veterinarians agree that an animal is certainly “ready to die” when it stops eating—that’s a sign that its body is literally shutting down.
Well, Peanut didn’t stop eating! Hence, the doggie diapers. Watching her waddle into the kitchen for dinner every night was a sad, pathetic, and hilarious sight.
We often called her our R.O.U.S., an allusion to the Rodents of Unusual Size from “The Princess Bride,” because of the way she waddled and wheezed on her way to her dinner bowl.
But then, she finally did stop eating.
Peanut shuffled off her puppy coil in 2007, just short of her 18th birthday.
Damn!
After she died, my dad was filled with remorse.

“Maybe we should’ve, y’know… put her down. Ended her misery sooner.”

I related to him the following passage I found in Joseph Telushkin’s book, “Jewish Wisdom”:

“Show respect to an old man who has forgotten his learning through no fault of his own, for we have learned that the fragments of the old tablets [of the Ten Commandments which Moses shattered] were kept alongside the new tablets in the Ark of the Covenant.”
-- Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 8b

Even when tablets are broken, we still carry them around.


Scotty: A century out of date. It's just... obsolete! ...
Geordi: Just because something's old doesn't mean you throw it away.

-- (Star Trek: TNG, Season 6, ep.4, written by Ronald D. Moore)

This historic exchange between the engineers from the original Star Trek series and the updated series (respectively) was quite poignant, indeed.
Especially considering the history of Scotty, portrayed by the amicable James Doohan.

Doohan suffered from Parkinson's disease, diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis in later life. In 2004, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. He died in 2005 (BBC News).

I saw the 1997 documentary Trekkies, and Doohan relayed the following, beautiful story:
“I got a fan letter from a young lady. It was a suicide note. So I called her and told her I’m doing a convention in Indianapolis, I wanna see you there. I saw her… she was definitely suicidal… I said, ‘I;m doing a convention two weeks in St. Louis, then in another two weeks… she came to new york… that went on for two or three years, maybe 18 times. And all I did was talk positive things to her. And then, all of a sudden—nothing. I didn’t hear anything. I had no idea what was happening to her.
Eight years later I get a letter from her: ‘I want to thank you so much for what you did for me, because I just got my master’s degree in Electronic Engineering’… and that’s the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. And it brings tears to my eyes…”

Old or young, we can all do something kind for someone else.


Damn.
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