From Another Angle

I've been thinking about a girl I met a long time ago in the dog world.

I remember the first time I met her. I'd only been showing for about a year, and she was the little sister of one of the top Junior Handlers in our region. She's borrowed a little cocker spaniel named Carmen for our Juniors competition and I was handling Tiara, the first Sibe of my mom's breeding that we'd kept.

I sucked that competition.. reviewing old videos my dad had made of us, it makes sense why. I was an awful handler with no finesse when I started.

Anyway, she took second out of the 8 people in our class, behind the girl with the Belgian Sheepdog that I haven't seen at a show in years. It wasn't that she was particularly good, but Carmen was a very well behaved dog, and was handed over fully groomed, so with her modicum of effort, she reaped big rewards. When I walked out with my green participant ribbon and my gift certificate for a McDonalds Sundae, I swore I wouldn't be friends with her.

But it's funny how things work out. Her and I did become friends of a sort. Along with the son of one of my mom's friends, and his tag-along friend with the Great Danes we caused all kinds of trouble. We'd stay up late in my pop tent drinking the Mike's Hard that we'd stole from our parents' coolers, and dabble with smoking behind show buildings. We painted the nasty poodle lady's van windows with dandilions (this particular incident lost me the Best Overall Junior award the year the poodle lady judged the competition.. oh boy, did she remember!), and would drag the boys through whatever scheme we felt was most daring at that point.

By the time she hit High School, her taste for the dog fancy had worn off. Her sister had gone off to college and aged out of Juniors, and I was taking over the top Junior spot in our region, so the competitive appeal was gone for her.

She started getting into a lot of personal trouble. Getting caught having sex in random places, dabbling in drugs, but every year her mom would host the local fancy's Christmas party and we'd sit up in her room watching Billy Madison and talking.

She wasn't a bad person, she was just impressionable. Once you got her away from the eyes of the people she put on the front for, she was a really good person.

This morning I've been sitting her numb. I just got an email from my mom to let me know that she passed away early yesterday morning in a car accident just outside of my hometown.

I'm really sorry I lost touch with her.

21 is much too young.