Katie Up and Down the Hall: The True Story of How One Dog Turned Five Neighbors Into a Family by Glenn Plaskin

Author:Glenn Plaskin
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Sociology, Social Science, Customs & Traditions, Strangers - New York (State) - New York, Pets, Essays, Dogs, Families - New York (State) - New York, N.Y.), Nature, New York (N.Y.), Cocker spaniels, Neighbors - New York (State) - New York, Animals, Plaskin, Battery Park City (New York, Marriage & Family, Cocker spaniels - New York (State) - New York, New York (N.Y.) - Social life and customs, N.Y.) - Social life and customs, Breeds, Neighbors, New York (State), Glenn, General, New York, Biography & Autobiography, Human-animal relationships, Human-animal relationships - New York (State) - New York, Biography
ISBN: 9781599952543
Publisher: Hachette Digital, Inc.
Published: 2010-09-08T04:00:00+00:00

So Pearl was now Ryan’s number one babysitter, the main female presence in his life, reliably stepping in for John anytime he was at work, at a meeting, or on a date. (Katie acted as Pearl’s energetic aide-de-camp.)

“Wednesday is my day,” Pearl announced at first, though her after-school babysitting role soon expanded to most any day. She helped Ryan with his homework, packed up his Power Rangers lunch box for the next day, whipped up chicken or meat loaf for dinner, and rewarded him at dessert time with her graham-cracker-crust chocolate pie (or spoiled him with Krispy Kreme doughnuts).

Dessert time also now included Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey—banana ice cream with fudge chunks and walnuts. You could always depend on Katie to lick Ryan’s bowl clean. “No need for a dishwasher with her around,” quipped Granny, wary that Katie never ate any of the chocolate chunks that were so bad for dogs.

Once, Pearl was spraying whipped cream on Ryan’s ice cream when Katie dove into the bowl, her nose instantly covered with the white topping. When Ryan objected, Granny spritzed him on the face with the cream, Katie merrily licked it off his nose. And so it went.

“But Granny,” John told me one day, “is no pushover and she won’t stay up with ‘the kid’ past eleven o’clock—so I better damn well be home by then.”

“And if you’re not,” Pearl scolded, “that’s your problem, not mine.”

When this happened, she usually turned Ryan over to me. That meant that I’d literally pick him up and carry him—sound asleep in my arms—from Pearl’s to my apartment and place him on my living room couch next to Katie until John got back. Later, John would scoop him up and carry him home. Through it all, Ryan never woke up.

But first thing in the morning, Ryan was right back at Granny’s door, ready for some fun. This twosome, seventy-eight years apart, could be heard giggling for hours at Pearl’s dining table as they talked about school and played cards together. “Granny really knows how to play,” Ryan told John, “and she usually beats me.” Sometimes I’d find them finger painting at the table or putting together a model airplane.

Ryan was intently curious about everything in Pearl’s world. One day, he poked his head into her bedroom closet as she pulled out Arthur’s coin and stamp collections, along with a silver stopwatch that Arthur had used when judging track meets at Madison Square Garden. Ryan marveled at the heavy timepiece. I could see Pearl getting emotional as she held it in her hand. “One day,” she promised, “when you’re older, I’ll make sure you have this.”

Sometimes when I came into her apartment, Ryan would be on the couch with his feet propped up on Granny’s lap, Katie next to him, as Pearl read him one of the Curious George books or taught him how to do a crossword puzzle. At other times, Pearl, who loved gardening, would show Ryan how to pot a plant or properly water the dozens of blooms set along her windowsill.

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