In the fall of 2006, a new dog came into our lives, Lynne’s Minute.
Last night, Lynne posted about Minute on her Instagram. In her words: This girl has been with me for 18 years. She has been my reason to go home when it was the last place I wanted to go. She made the house not empty. She has run with a Doberman, a Mastiff, an American bulldog, and a chihuahua. She’s chased squirrels up trees, chewed many harnesses, and rode many miles. Stoic and brave. Not aware she was only 17 pounds of sass. She’s never been one to run off. She always wants to be where I am. Faithful and true. She has come to the end of her watch. I will miss her every day.
This morning, Lynne and Minute said goodbye. We will all miss Minute, too. I like to think I contributed to naming her. I don’t know if I saw a photo or saw her in person, but I said, “She’s no bigger than a minute!” Lynne answered, “That’s what Jess said, too.” It seemed fated that she become Jess’s little sister Minute. For a while, Minute had her own blog. I still go and look at it sometimes. She came into a home with siblings: Greta, the Dowager Doberman, and Little Blind Sparky. They were a great trio. She also became an aunt and best friends with Jess and Laura’s dogs and honestly thought she was the same size as them: Seig, a Doberman, Sue, the American bulldog, and Sam, a HUGE mastiff, and later, Ruby and Ginger. When she welcomed her chihuahua brother Paco to her family, it may have been the first time a family dog was smaller than her!
Lynne’s grandchildren have never known a world without Minute.
At The Compound, she was a running mate to our Margot, Guinness, and then Anime; Tim’s Rex, Pixie, Penny, and then Pollock. A friend to Rhonda and Lindsey’s Sugar when they visited. At Houndstooth Hall, she befriended Debby’s Harley and Stewie, and Rhonda and Lindsey’s Pepper when she joined their family. She welcomed Delta, Jack, and Eva into the batpack. Who knows how many of our foster dogs she met through the years, but I never saw her exchange a harsh word with another dog. As far as she was concerned, in the dog world, she never met a stranger. She gave every dog a chance to be a potential new friend, though there was a special bond between her and Anime. But all other dogs she met as equals, and she was their monarch.
Some of her photos through the years.
Timothy with Minute. He often took care of her and her siblings.
One of my first photos of Minute, taken on a baking night in December of 2006. We had a houseful of bakers and assistants at The Compound, giving Minute a big social debut at an early age. No dogs were intoxicated in the making of this photo. That bottle of Jack was for whiskey balls as an experiment with our rum ball recipe.
Rex playing with Minute.
Minute with her brother Sparky, and on the floor, her nephew Seig.
Minute ready to garden with Margot, Sparky, Guinness, and Rex.
One time, when I took care of Sparky and Minute, I had them both bathed and brushed by a groomer. Sparky LOVED it and was invigorated. Minute, who loved nothing better than getting muddy, tolerated it but was outraged that I let them put this silly bow on her. She was a WARRIOR, not a girly girl!
Minute and her little brother Paco.
Besties. Minute and Anime. Even as she aged and slowed down, Minute and Anime would become like playful puppies when they got together again. They were never far from each other.
Jack, Eva, and Minute.
Pepper grabs the couch, while Minute, Anime, and Eva sleep in the distance.
Hard to get them all in one shot, but here’s Delta with Minute, Eva, Jack, and to the far right, Anime.
Tom and Minute on a recent visit.
Sweet and spicy: a blended foursome.
She was a tiny girl, and in honor of Tiny Tuesday, I tried to find the little dog I put on Lynne’s birthday cake in 2007. I never found it. Maybe I gave it to Lynne.
I did unpack these two Birthstone Barbies with their companions.
Miss Sapphire with her Westie. Sapphires represent love, royalty, and protection, and that tracks for Minute on all three counts. On a whim, I checked Miss Topaz, because that’s Lynne’s birth month, and what better dog to be represented than a little tan and white chihuahua. I know Paco was first to greet Minute at the Rainbow Bridge; how he must have missed her. The wild rumpus then began with her many friends at their reunion.
I just finished reading this novel from Ann Patchett, Tom Lake (which was really good and made me cry at the end), and in the process of reading, I discovered a small bookmark I’d forgotten (to add to the Sunday Sundries bookmarks I’ve already shared).
Joe Nick Patoski’s Willie Nelson: An Epic Life. I very much look forward to reading this when I’m ready for another biography. (I think the most recent three I read are on loan to Lynne: one each on Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Mellencamp, and Bruce Springsteen.) Willie’s bookmark advertises the animal rescue group Scout’s Honor Rescue. This was the organization to whom Lynne turned over two dogs she found tied to a fire hydrant on her way home from work one night. The poodle mix, Curly, was adopted immediately. When she took the chihuahua, Paco, to an adoption event, she realized she couldn’t let him go and adopted him herself. He was part of her family for years before crossing the Rainbow Bridge. I adored that little guy.
From then on, my inscriptions from Mark in his books always included encouragement and best wishes for my writing. And then, in a most unexpected way, I did find a voice for telling those stories when I began doing a fun writing exercise with my friends Timothy, Timmy, and Jim. I could recognize the spirit, humor, and sadness of the friends I lost and their larger community in what I was writing with them. When we had a draft of a first novel that grew out of that exercise, I began sending it out and got dozens of rejections. I shared that information with Mark at a signing in 1999 for his memoir Firebird, telling him I was happy to be writing but sad that the writing wasn’t finding a home. This is what he wrote when he signed his book that night.
Recently, Tom and I were talking about the novel Bill Clinton cowrote with author James Patterson. I bought it, read it, liked it. (They wrote a second, but I don’t have it. Yet.) Tom asked me if I’d ever read the novel Hillary Clinton cowrote in 2021 with Louise Penny. And I said, “I’m pretty sure I got it from Murder By The Book, but I haven’t read it yet.”
Back in the pre-pandemic days, when I still had a job and also went to lots of appointments or took Debby to hers, I spent a lot of time in my car or waiting rooms coloring. These small coloring books (about 5×7 inches) were often in the magazine stands in checkout lines at the grocery store, so I’d grab one to keep in the car. I haven’t used them in quite a while. The cover of the one with the ice cream cone had a glass of water spilled on it, which is why it’s missing.
