This doesn’t mean I’m back-I just couldn’t resist telling you this story…

A Typical Saturday:  Placido Domingo & the Crazy Husky

Somehow, I’m always tired when I go to the opera and last Saturday was no exception.  It was also snowing in New York.  I missed my train to Penn Station and the next train was late-the day was starting off just great…and typically.

Fortunately, the train wasn’t too late, so if we (me and my teenage son) really hurried, we might make it in time for the 1:00 matinee of The Enchanted Island at the Metropolitan Opera.  We might still escape the misfortune of being sent to the viewing theater until Act II.  Of course, I had to use a bathroom as soon as we got to Penn.  So I waited on line and finally got into a stall and there was no toilet paper…peeked into another stall and there was garbage all over…okay, Plan B!  But I didn’t have a Plan B.  So I had to think really fast…Plan B!  Plan B????  TGI Fridays!  I’ll sneak in and use that bathroom!  It was packed with poor wretches getting drunk in the middle of the day-no problem executing Plan B. 

And now I’ll share with you my brilliant trick for getting a taxi in NYC-I’m very proud of this!  You discreetly walk into a hotel that has a taxi bellboy, stay in there a minute, walk right back out and hail the bellboy…just make sure you have a buck on you.  It works every time and there’s usually very little wait!  It just so happens there is such a hotel right across from Penn on 7th Ave.  Across the street, all those suckers are still waiting in the long taxi line at Penn Station and you are happily on your way!  If you have any moral qualms about this, think of it this way-the guy got an extra buck, right?

So, we got there in time and even were able to check our coats.  Now I could relax and see Placido Domingo on his 71st birthday…for the first time-it was very exciting.  The Enchanted Island is a musical pastiche in English, based on the writings of Shakespeare and featuring a variety of Baroque arias.  A complex, odd concept, but very entertaining, with exceptional visual art, including computer graphics.  There was one dance scene that I must admit, was rather vulgar-that is my main criticism, but the rest of the performance outshines the negative.  To say Domingo has still got it, would be an understatement.  He blew everyone else away as the God of the Seas, Neptune.  On his website (link above) reads the motto:  “If I rest, I rust.”  He obviously takes these words to heart.  He has also been busy conducting at the Met and elsewhere-what an extraordinary talent.

My son and I did not feel like hanging out in the city on a snowy, cold day, so we got the first train home (after I had some coffee).  By the time my husband picked us up at the train station, I was completely exhausted and looking forward to cozying up on the couch, resting and being WARM.  But…no such luck…

Just as we approached the final traffic light on our way home, just around the corner from our house, a young female husky appeared in the middle of the road (a main road with tons of traffic), staring down the cars, completely unafraid of them.  Then she proceeded to prance around insanely, all over the place.  My husband wanted to ignore it and so did I.  But my son would have none of that-he started pleading with my husband to let us catch it and I found some voice from deep inside my conscience pleading alongside him, despite my exhaustion, the cold and the obvious difficulties and dangers of attempting such a thing.  There wasn’t any time to call the cops because the dog was in imminent danger, along with the other drivers who might swerve on the icy roads to avoid hitting it (we had seen someone on the way to the train in the morning, while it was snowing, completely knock down a lamppost-they just backed up and drove away).  With the way the dog was wildly running, by the time the cops got there, she could have been in another county.  She ran off the road into a parking lot-we took this as our opportunity to secure the dog-we were terrified of her running into traffic again.  This proved to be not as easy as we thought…

The dog didn’t have a collar-figures!  But she was friendly and clean-obviously well cared-for and not used to being out on the streets-hence the frapping in traffic.  The problem was, she wouldn’t stand still!  She would come up to us and then run away again.  I thought I could get her to stand still by holding her around the neck (which isn’t a very good idea-don’t try this at home), but she just jumped on my face and ran away.  Then I got the brilliant idea of opening the door to a nearby 711 and seeing if she would go in.  So the people in 711 had a little treat awaiting them.  Here comes a crazed husky and two people in opera attire, one with a bruised face, running into the store from the cold, snowy night.  It could not have turned out much worse.  Well, the dog could have bit someone-that would have been worse.

Baby (that’s what I called her and she seemed to like the name) started jumping on people and running into the back kitchen.  The cashier, the only staff on site, did not speak English and was terrified of her-he actually jumped up on the counter!  (Okay, this is where I say I’M NOT MAKING THIS UP!)  I told him to get off the counter and call the cops to pick the dog up, but he didn’t understand me.  So, I was going to use their phone to call the cops (my cell was in the car and my husband did not even know where we were-he was parked up the street).  At that point, the customers started ganging up on me, instead of trying to help me.  One guy started opening the door to let Baby out and I implored him not to DO THAT…WHY DID YOU DO THAT???  Okay, she was running around like crazy and jumping on people but she wasn’t dangerous, just hyper.  I know you’re not supposed to bring dogs in there and health issues-yeah, yeah, yeah-but this was a crisis situation that needed to be gotten under control.  Instead of helping and trying to understand the situation, they just ganged up on me and made the situation worse.  Suppose the dog runs into traffic and someone with a baby in the car swerves reflexively…any number of things could happen in an instant on a dangerous road that’s known for numerous accidents. 

So here we go again-Baby bolted straight toward the road and my heroic son followed her-I lost sight of both of them and was then worried about my son running into traffic to save the dog.  This is just the sort of stress I was looking forward to that night.  Finally, we get her cornered into another parking lot, this time with a 24-hour deluxe tanning salon (I’m not making that up, either).  I’ve never been inside a tanning salon before, so this was educational for me.  This place had like 12 posh rooms and Baby decided to go in and out of each one of them.  Again, one staffperson present-but she was very nice and tried to help.  She just didn’t know how, due to her youth.  She called the cops and was sent on a wild goose chase of calling different numbers, none of which were helpful (this was irresponsible of the cops, who should have come immediately).  I couldn’t monitor things, I was too busy trying to control Baby.  Then, bad gets worse…

Wouldn’t you know, the owner of the tanning salon happens to see Baby on the security camera, calls up and goes ballistic on the poor girl!  At that point, there’s no fixing anything-Baby has to go IMMEDIATELY.  Again, the owner does not try to help or work with the situation, just makes a demand that the dog must go and does not even give us a chance to call the cops back.  Yes, I do understand her point of view, but all I’m saying is that people don’t want to stop and try to see the bigger picture.  If this is what happens when a dog is loose, how will people react when something worse could be happening?  Are they only willing to see their own selfish myopic view?  This is why patience and love are virtues.  Sometimes, that’s what life requires.

At this point, I had called my husband on the salon’s phone and he was on his way.  We had to get Baby into our car, but how?  We had no leash.  Like the girl says in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (why does that sound strangely appropriate?), “There is always something.”  I looked around and had to think quickly once again…was this Plan D, M or Q?  My son’s tie!  We had an argument in the morning over the tie.  Since we were running late, I told him he didn’t need to wear the tie, but he insisted…little did we know…

So we get Baby into the car with the tie and she still doesn’t calm down.  She eventually jumps into the hatch and likes it back there for a short while.  We called the local police and no one seemed to be there.  So I had to call 911 and they sent someone.  It probably took about 15 minutes for the cop to arrive, though it felt like a 1/2 hour with Baby jumping all around and dog hair getting in my nose and mouth.  Now that I was up close and personal with her, it was very clear that she was recently groomed and impeccably clean, with no doggie smell at all.  Someone must be looking for her and must be frantic-I would be.  So, a cop pulls up by himself, which surprised me-I would think a crazed dog might need TWO people to secure?  He had some kind of industrial leash and said he was going to hit her on the head, which made me cringe.  He was able to get her on the leash with some struggling and did not have to hit her-thank goodness.  He now had to wait for Animal Control to pick her up.  So there we left Baby, giving the cop a run for his money as she squirmed on the end of the leash.  We drove away a bit sadly-we had gotten attached to her in the past hour. 

I thought we should just let it go and not get any further involved but my son wanted to know what happened to her and really…so did I.  I called Animal Control on Monday and they said they never received a husky Saturday night.  So I called the local police and they said the husky had been returned to her owner, who was looking for her, but they did not have any further details.  Maybe the owner doesn’t even know about us-they certainly have no idea the lengths we went to and the personal risk we took to save their dog.  But that’s okay-I just hope she doesn’t get out again.  My son asked me what I would do if I saw the dog on the road again and I said, “I’d ignore it!”  Can you imagine us walking into the tanning salon with the dog again…”Hi, remember us?  Um…can I get a tan?  I’d like the Hawaiian Dream lotion.  Oh, I’d like room 8-Baby likes the rug in there.  Could you turn those pesky cameras off?” 

I’ve told this story to my friends and family numerous times in the past week and they keep asking me, “How did you control the dog?  How were you able to do all that?”  Its because I have a dog who’s difficult so I’m sort of used to it.  I’m good with dogs and I don’t fear them but I do realize that I was taking some risk.  All I can say is, sometimes intuition kicks in and you just go with it.  You might think I’m crazy and handled it all wrong and you might be right.  I don’t know why I did what I did, but maybe a tragedy was prevented.  Maybe we were meant to arrive at that traffic light at that very moment.  We caught the train home with only a minute to spare.  If we had missed that train, the night may have turned out very differently.  If I had taken a few more minutes to drink my coffee (thank goodness for that coffee!) at the Atrium across from Lincoln Center…we may have seen an ambulance instead of a crazy husky-or we may simply have avoided a stressful situation.  What’s the meaning of all this?  “If I rest, I rust?”

Why did it take me a whole week to write about this?  I’ve been recuperating from my very typical…Saturday.

Note:  The “crazy husky” icon was found at deviantart.