Everything Else is Bric-a-Brac by Akiko Busch

Author:Akiko Busch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press

Step

The old farmhouse my family lives in was added onto incrementally, with rooms added over the last two centuries. For this reason, the kitchen that was built at one end of the house required a ten-inch step up from the dining room next to it.

When the boys were six, we got a husky puppy who was promptly named Wolfie, and Wolfie found this step troublesome. It was not just the shift in elevation, but the change in flooring material from the blue linoleum tiles of the kitchen to the chestnut boards of the dining room that freaked him out. The change in space, material, color, texture—it was all too much for him, and no manner of cajoling or treats could convince the pup to leave the kitchen. Even if one of the boys carried him tenderly out of the kitchen and rewarded the successful transit with biscuits, Wolfie trotted back to the kitchen at the earliest opportunity. We finally gave into this, put his little bed in the kitchen, and let him claim that space as his own, figuring he would eventually find his own way into the rest of the house.

This never happened. Weeks after Wolfie’s arrival into our family, our vet detected a slight involuntary twitching of Wolfie’s head, a signal of a neurological disorder. The dog’s attachment to the kitchen was the least of his troubles. While he often gazed at us with quizzical eyes, he was short on affection, growling at visitors, and most content when he was curled up alone. Seizures came next, and his short life ended when he was less than two years old, with a grand mal fit from which he never recovered.

We got the puppy for all the usual reasons: faith, love, companionship, the abiding trust one finds in canine eyes, lessons in the responsibility of care and its rewards that a family pet offers. Our boys experienced little of this with the disturbed dog often found cowering at the forbidding drop of the kitchen step. If there were lessons at all, they had more to do with estrangement, distance, and how human care can sometimes be inadequate to the needs of those around us. But still, I am certain my sons’ experience had value. Because surely they learned something then about how affection is not always reciprocal and how it is possible to love and not be loved in return.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.