Mango Man, oh yeah!

Today, Petey has once more taken over this blog...

 

Ah, friends, we lost a good one today. Our friend Mango has headed over the bridge to join many of our friends (and my left eye) in that marvelous place of no pain, no leashes, and endless mountains of bacon and cheeseburgers.

I join a chorus of hundreds who will sing Mango's praises today and we've wiped away tears more than once today, but rather than lament his death, I say let's raise our paws to a RELENTLESSLY HUGE LIFE WELL-LIVED.

Let's celebrate how lucky we all were to be friends with Mango.

 

Devoted to charity and those less-fortunate than himself, he and his brother Peewee were proud supporters of the "Lacie Date Survivor" cause. He man(go)ed hot lines and saved more than a few unknowing pups.

  

He also was a very vocal proponent to bringing an end to Lacie's Smoothie business.

 

 He was a great traveller and adventurer, even if this trip to South Africa resulted him getting into some hot water. While the tribe were disappointed not to sample delicious mango, The Relentlessly Huge reported it was the best hot tub he'd ever experienced.

 Along with his great pal, Joe Stains, Mango traveled to the Highlands of Scotland several times. His kilt still holds the record for most tartan ever used. No doubt he and Joey are discussing the Red Sox and Yankees seasons right this moment.

Truly a ladies man(go), Mango had international beauties drooling all over him (and vice versa!)

 His producer debut on "Beagadoon" -- the all-canine retelling of the classic musical Brigadoon -- won him his first Oscar Meyer award.

 For such a relentlessly huge fella, Mango was surprisingly light on his feet. Whether he was rivaling the pros from Dancing with the Stars in the ballroom...

 

...winning rave reviews for his performance as The Nutcracker prince in the Boston Ballet...

 

...mastering a Highland fling with a teeny partner...

 

 ...or kicking up his heels with the Rockettes (okay, so he smushed a couple of them.)

 Today we lost Andy Williams as well. And I think his most famous song is appropriate today as we remember and celebrate our friend Mango.

Two drifters, off to see the world, 

there's such a lot of world to see. 

We're after the same rainbow's end, waiting 'round the bend

My Huckleberry friend, Moon River and me.

Until we meet again, dear friend...

Love in the afternoon.

Petey's girlfriend Kali is here for the afternoon while her owner moves from our building to another in the neighborhood. We figured Kali would be a lot less confused if she just hung out with her pal Petey for the day. Kali is the only dog that Petey actually will play with and then, only in our apartment, never the dog run where the two of them pretty much ignore each other. 

But as you can see from these photos, it's a different story behind closed doors. I called the two of them to go out for a walk and this is how I found them.

Fashion hound

Disappointed that there were no actual "cats" on the "catwalk," Petey nonetheless knew how to "make it work!"

Either you're in or you're out! Woof wiedersehen!

And if you've ever wondered what the David would look like wearing a Missoni onesie, here you go! The latest art installation in the Meatpacking District.

Stay cool!

Summer so far...

We've been back in New York since Sunday and it's even hotter here than it is in South Carolina! Bummer! I'm not too thrilled about the scaffolding directly outside our windows (or the workmen walking by just a few feet away at 8:30 in the morning!). Plus there's renovation work going on in the apartment next door AND a two-year construction project putting in a new water main in the neighborhood. Ah, how Petey and I long for the quiet sea breezes and croaking frogs and cicadas...

Let's look back at the month of June, from Petey's point of view...

Lots of time outdoors on the deck, scaring away the squirrels who like to hit up the bird feeder and the feral cat who drops by.

 Lots of bike rides down to Harbourtown -- Petey's decided he deserves a small scoop of vanilla ice cream as his reward for riding down in the bike basket -- plus he's also found out which shops offer dog biscuits. This dog will never starve, wherever he goes!

The big whirlpool tub in the bathroom brought out a voyeuristic side of Petey not seen since his puppy days. Don't think he's quite ready for a swim across the tub!

Just a cheeky little smile!

One of Petey's new stops was The Courtyard shop in the Village Exchange. It's an awesome combination knitting store and used book exchange. I have a fabulous group of ladies that meet up on Thursday nights for some socializing and "needling." Great fun. 

Here's the sweater I made...

For this little guy. I figure it will fit him in about three years!

 Petey came along and discovered the mezzanine level around the second floor of the store. He'd wait at the top of the stairs and nudge his rubber ball with his nose so it would bounce down the steps!

I'd catch the ball and toss it back up to him. Repeat, repeat, repeat. He loved it! We ended up hanging out at the store for several hours that afternoon and he'd play with every single customer who came in -- especially bored husbands waiting for their wives to check out all the knitting stuff!

Of course, we spent a lot of time at the beach. Though we were restricted to before 10:00 am and after 5:00 pm, Petey still found plenty of kids to toss the ball for him.

One of my favorite moments was when he made a beeline one morning for a little boy playing in the sand. I realized immediately that the boy had special needs and his father did indeed tell me that his son Will had had 10 surgeries in his 4 1/2 years, including open heart surgery and the insertion of a feeding tube. He was a bit cautious of Petey but the Dad kept tossing the ball for him and Petey kept bringing the ball back and dropping it in front of Will. Finally Will stood up and threw the ball and Petey caught it mid-air. Will burst out into a big giggly smile. I glanced over at the Dad and saw he was choked up, eyes brimming with tears. It was almost ten so we said goodbye and headed up to hose off Petey. I ran into the family again by the showers and the Dad thanked me for letting them play with Petey. Oh, no problem - thanks for playing with him, I replied. "No," said the Dad, "It really made our day."

The power of Petey.

WOOOOOO!!!!!

The first few days we were on the Island, we had thunderstorms almost every day and Petey was not at all happy. He didn't seem to mind them in his earlier years, but in the past couple, he doesn't like them at all, panting heavily, hiding in the bathroom or under the bed.  It's gotten worst - he used to be fine just sitting with me during a storm but now he gets so upset he exhausts himself.

So I bought him a Thundershirt. And it stopped raining for four weeks!  However this past Saturday, we had fireworks about 100 yards away at the country club and after the first "BOOM!" Petey had his tail between his hind legs and was trembling. I grabbed the Thundershirt and wrapped it tightly around him and pulled him into my lap. The panting stopped. He quieted down and...fell asleep with his head on my knee! It works!

One last romp on the beach before we head back to New York...

Chilling out in the Charlotte Airport between flights. Petey's a good traveller but I figured it couldn't hurt if he was extra calm with his Thundershirt on. And it also prevented any airport employees from insisting he go back into his travel bag between flights.

Now on to our next adventures....

Petey attends the CFDA awards

Well, we may currently be in South Carolina, but last night, Petey and I had a small cameo at the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) awards ceremony at Lincoln Center. We are big fans (yes I'm including Petey as well as he is definitely a fashion hound) of the blogs of Scott Schulman --The Sartorialist-- and Garance Dore --garancedore.com) and when they announced they'd be receiving the Media Award this year, they asked their loyal readers to send in video clips saying why they liked their blogs. So I submitted one with Petey on my lap.* * I have met both Scott and Garance several times--often enough that Garance recognizes me and we'll casually chat. Usually I've run into her shooting in the West Village and Petey will often yelp a bit. She told me to come up with a distinctive name that she'll recognize when I leave a comment, so I've become "Jane with the noisy terrier." so Petey had to be included in my video. Anyhow they received literally thousands of homemade videos from around the world for this presentation and guess what? Ours was one of about a dozen chosen for the final cut! And you can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3_foAb2p4E&feature=youtube_gdata_player Look for us about 1:09 minutes in! Then go check out Scott and Garance's blogs!

Sea dog

Petey took a break from looking at photos of his latest photo shoot (check out Petey in the black and white and the color sections, eating ice cream!) to join me for a walk along the Hudson River to see OpSail -- a parade of tall ships from across the globe plus naval ships in town for Fleet Week. 

Stopped for some breakfast-to-go and met this little Foxy pup. I swear Petey thinks every Foxy he sees is Asta and is always a little disappointed when he realizes it's not her.  But this puppy was very sweet!

 We went out the end of pier in the Hudson River Park where we could see the ships passing by the Statue of Liberty, most under full sail. Unfortunately, I only had my iPhone with me to take photos.

I always love imagining what New York must have been like in the days of sailing ships.

And I loved the juxtaposition of these classic sailing ships against the modern skyline of Jersey City.

Can you see the Statue of Liberty through the haze, welcoming international visitors to New York?

Those are sailors standing along the spars of the masts as they came up the river.

 Throughout the morning, fighter planes were soaring overhead, including the Blue Angels. I didn't get a photo of them but they flew over twice, quite low. Gave me goosebumps. Petey just ignored them!

The sky was quite mysterious. Loved this shot through the Richard Meier buildings.

There was a break in the parade between the Tall Ships and the Naval ships, so Petey insisted we go on down to the dog run in the park. Unfortunately, it was being cleaned so we couldn't go in.

We did spy these pretty roses growing among some blue spruce trees.

We watched the ships pass by from the end of the pier, out by that white pavillion.

I love this quote: "I can sail without wind, I can row without oars, but I cannot part from my friend without tears."

The Coast Guard training ship, the USS Eagle, was far off when I took this so I had to blow up the photo a lot. But I love how it looks like a painting.

I thought it must have been very powerful for the sailors on Navy ships to pass by the Statue of Liberty and the new World Trade Center building.  The sailors were lined up at attention along the decks.

I was in Times Square tonight to see a show (an incredible performance by Phillip Seymour Hoffman in "Death of a Salesman") and there were plenty of sailors enjoying their shore leave. I kept expecting them to break out into song.

"New York, New York! It's a helluva town!"