Canines by Chad

One of my favorite things about CC is her love of dogs (in this case, the word love should be taken with the largest amount of sarcasm possible). The last letter I got from CC had her return address sticker on it, which for some reason has a black lab with its tongue sticking out next to her name and address. She had written a note on the side pointing up to the dog that said, "My main campaign."

CC has long been able to express her love for dogs. Let's begin with Molly. Our sweet, loving, negro-puppy-bearing Golden Retriever, Molly. We all loved her. We all ignored her. Except CC, who spent many of her hours buring Molly's piles underneath the Cannon terraced gardens. We all know there was a reason she asked Ryan Livingston to take Molly on that newspaper route. Knowing Molly's innate ability to roam freely and to duke on large amounts of property, all CC had to do was let the dog go deliver newspapers with Ryan, and that would be the last of her. Yet I am still convinced that ultimately Molly is the one to blame for the Replenish Products venture, since there is a clear connection between the large and numerous piles that Molly left in our backyard and the even larger and even more numerous piles that would become the staple of underage Cannon employment later on. Watching those terrace gardens blossom from all of Molly's dukes inspired a business venture of the most exciting kind...

After Molly, there was Hiney (sp?). Hiney was the sheep dog without a tail that discovered so cleverly that if she just hung around at the Weber, different people would come outside and feed her. Her plan worked exceedingly well, and soon she was riding in the Cannon Suburban down to 2550 Lynwood Drive. Surely she would have fled the scene if she knew that her life would come to an end at that location. CC at this point was surely already feeling bitter about the dog (perhaps as a side effect of running a manure company subconsciously inspired by dog piles), and it's not too far-fetched to propose that the placement of the rat poison which ended Hiney's life in our garden (ironically a garden sprinkled with Repenish mulch) was no accident.

Nowadays CC's love for the canine world is largely expressed from a safe distance, where she can't get too intimate with the animals. Last summer, upon returning from Japan, I was in the car with Pops and CC, driving on 13th East past Sugarhouse Park, where the "Strut Your Mut" event was happening. CC, with a real zeal in her voice, exclaimed: "OOOOooo, this is totally my kind of event!!!" Later we passed a car, loaded with large dogs, each of which was sticking its head out the window and letting the wind cool down its tongue - drool slopping onto the hot pavement below. CC, with a similar zeal, cried, "Ooooo, let me get in that car!!! Mmmm...yes!" We also all know that CC actually wishes she had married Drew, so she would be able to have at any given time at least 3 dogs with her in the car, at the Weber, or maybe (if she was lucky) at church. We also know she was extremely jealous of Chris and Jari, since they were able to raise one canine child in Alpine before moving on to biped children in Holds and Mils. Her thoughts must often be full of regret - wondering why she raised six children instead of the hundreds of dogs she could have raised with the same amount of capital. Think how many terraced gardens she could have fertilized!!!