Oliver Loses a Friend

This post was originally done in November 2011.     My friend, Cass, and I liked to think that our dogs, Dion and Oliver were friends as well.     Between facebook and blogs, these dogs did "speak" in human voices!     


Both of our dogs were British, Oliver the corgi coming from Wales while Dion the Cavalier was English and had the Marlborough line in his background (the Blenheim colourway, after all, was named for the home of the Duke of Marlborough).   


They were almost the same age although Oliver was a year older but Cass and I did talk about our "geriatric" dogs.   They both were "old men".


In the fall, I sent Cass a gift and I made sure that Oliver was "on" the gift.    It must have been for she said when the package was opened Dion came running over and smelled every inch of it!      


Whenever we emailed, we always ended with "Oliver says "hi" to Dion" or  "Dion gives his regards to Oliver".     


This week, Oliver lost his friend.       It was a sad day at Linderhof when we read facebook and found that Dion had crossed the Rainbow Bridge.


A comment on the post was:   

"Godspeed!  Be thou comforted little dog.

Thou, too, in the Resurrection shall have a golden tail."

-- Martin Luther

That Martin Luther was a smart guy.   Of course, Cass and I both know that!    

In memory of his dear friend, Dion, Oliver asked me to repost this post from last November . . . 

I love teaching classes at our local Culinary Store, Life + Style,  and last night my class was on Baked Gifts from Your Kitchen.      For it is getting close to the Christmas giving season and there is nothing like a gift from your kitchen to make a person feel special.

And to make my students feel special, I baked each one of them a favorite cake of mine - - -

Pumpkin Cranberry Coffeecake.

A pumpkin cake full of fresh cranberries, glazed with an orange glaze and sprinkled with dried cranberries.
A small cake -- perfect for one or two!

And then at class, we made (and tasted) . . .

An apple rosemary tea bread (from an old Martha Stewart Christmas book)    It's a favorite of mine and I love it for Christmas teas and make it every year.    We gilded the lily at class by adding a caramel glaze, fresh rosemary from my garden and a sprinkle of Maldon sea salt.

We also tasted . . .

An orange chocolate bread.    It tastes like those chocolate oranges that are so prevalent at Christmas or like chocolate dipped candied orange peel.      With an orange glaze (instead of the chocolate the recipe called for) and a sprinkle of chocolate chips, it would make a nice Christmas gift.

Of course, even though I baked for class yesterday, I also baked for us . . . . a bread to be enjoyed for breakfast on Friday morning . . or so I thought.

It seems, however, that Husband Jim had a midnight snack.     Of course, he couldn't eat the whole cake . . .and he fell asleep and carelessly left the remainder on the coffee table . . .

I woke up to this --

On the dining room floor!!!  

It seems that a wee Corgi forgot about the coffee table rule (Corgis do not take Human Food off of the coffee table -- corgi food is always on the floor) and not only did he eat a good portion of it, but he managed to peel the paper off of the cake!     Clever dog!

It seems that his "midnight raid" last night was tiring . . . because today . . .

There is nothing like a nap after a midnight raid.    Once anything is one the floor, I figure it is mine!

He is tired . . . too tired . . . and perhaps too full!  

Oliver never does things like that!    But I suspect that he has been communicating with his Facebook buddy.    I also suspect that that Facebook buddy put ideas into his head . . . for that Facebook buddy is notorious for consuming Human Food. . .

Me, your blaming me?     I wasn't even there!   Oliver did it all by himself, didn't you buddy . . . you did delete those messages didn't you?    

Dion, who lives at That Old House.    Just ask Cass about the Human Food that Dion has eaten!


I will miss you dear friend, those uprights didn't know that we figured out how to use that machine that they so often seemed glued to!    They thought you needed opposable thumbs -- but we knew better!


                                                                                                              Oliver