Aslan

Aslan was not the first dog I loved, nor would he be the last, but he was our St Patrick’s Day boy. He was a classic island mutt, born on March 17th. He was a cross between a yellow lab and a golden retriever. We knew 3 or 4 of his litter mates who also lived on island.

He was named by our older daughter, who spotted a quarter board that read Narnia on one of our neighbors houses, and wondered what that was about. She was reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe when we got him. She also considered Gus, the theatre cat, as she was an Andrew Lloyd Webber fan as well.

He stayed with us for 16 years and chased countless tennis balls on beaches and fields. He came into work with me where he liked to drop his ball on my keyboard.

During the short ½ block walk from the car to my office he trotted along with a stuffed animal in his mouth, usually a seal or other marine mammal and posed numerous times for tourists as he trotted along the cobblestones.

After lunch, he would wait at the top of the stairs, tail thumping,for the school bus to drop our daughter off. He was a good dog.

We moved off island just as The Chronicles of Narnia movies were being released by Walt Disney and people started asking us if we had named the dog after the lion in the movie. I had to admit that no, we had not seen the movie, we had actually read the book, which often earned the response- oh, there’s a book? Sigh.

Aslan has been gone for over a decade now. It took 3 dogs to replace him. My family does not share my enthusiasm for Corned beef and cabbage, but I still cook it every year. It’s the only day I give out table scraps to our current pack, in memory of our St Patrick’s birthday boy

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