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Cooder, part 2

Cooder (part 2)

By Bill Stork, DVM

Cooder and I made the transition from the land of Lincoln to the land of Lombardi as best as can be expected.

By the time my central Illinois mushmouth accent would fade, my bachelor buddy was cleaning up under high chairs. Falling into a peaceful symbiosis with his “sister”, my daughter Paige, on the sound of a cup of kibble dumped from a ceramic mug with his picture on it, he would come running. He would sit patiently until she said “OK”. In exchange he would absorb hugs and listen quietly when she was frustrated or mad. (A function, by the way, that did not end. Years later, it was not unusual to see a pensive Paige sitting next to his little wooden cross, picking at the grass and dandelions.)

Cooder evidently was not willing to risk the onset of scurvy, constipation or starvation; on one occasion consuming a half case of Valencias purchased from an FFA fund raiser. Courtesy of Cooder, there were two Thanksgivings and a Christmas when the whipped cream went solo; he had downed the pumpkin pie, not a shred of DNA remaining in the pan. Soon, an apologetic Labrador excused himself to the alfalfa stubble, pooping like a cross between a Holstein cow and a Canada goose.

48 compact disks in wooden crates and Rubber Maid’s patented secure lock system were of little hindrance to a determined Cooder, once helping himself to 6.3 lbs of Hill’s Maintenance diet in one unattended sitting. His taste for items commonly found in the “Family Planning” aisle at Walgreens is not fodder for a family publication.

He could snatch a disk flying six feet in the air, and swim as far as a PVC and hair spray cannon could shoot a tennis ball into Rock Lake. Fortunately he also had the patience of the Pope. On a Sunday evening many years ago, he lay motionless on the stainless steel surgery table with a 16-gauge needle in his neck, flowing life into a transfusion bag.

To the good fortune of a 6-year-old boy who never had the use of his legs, and the little black lab mutt, Jenny, who kept him company, Cooder's bone marrow could crank out red blood cells faster than China makes microchips.

To be continued…

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