Farewell To The Mascot
A great sadness has come over the land. Lefty, my son Joe’s golden retriever and our office mascot, moseyed on down the road last weekend.
I haven’t felt this sad about a dog since I saw Old Yeller as a kid. Left had been coming into the office for 13 years. He was on the health plan, he took paid vacations, and he was the only one who got to sleep on the job. Jenn got him a cake every year on his birthday and everybody had a box of treats on their desk for when Lefty made the rounds.
He was a popular figure around the Village Commons and people who came by the office always loved him—clients, the mailman, the UPS, FedEx, and Amazon guys, everyone but the delivery guy from Hadley Printing who ran from Lefty like he was a saber-tooth tiger.
Lefty’s favorite place was Goose Rocks Beach in Maine, especially at low tide, when he’d run through the tidepools and chase tennis balls and splash around in the waves for hours. Joe plans on scattering some of his ashes there and some at the Northampton dog park, another place he loved to run and swim.
We’re sure gonna miss ya, buddy. Keep your dukes up
If you know someone who’d like these ditties in their inbox every week, have ‘em shoot us an email at darbyo@darbyobrien.com and we’ll add ‘em to the list.