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Why Dalmatians End Up in Rescue
Are Dalmatians given up because they are hyperactive, deaf, or aggressive? The real reasons may surprise you.
Sabrina at Home
Hit by a car and abandoned by her owners, a young Dal comes to Illinois, gets the medical care she needs, and finds a new family.
Misery No More
A miserable pup finds a new life, friends, and happiness in rescue. Now she needs a family to call her own.
Dalmatians Are Best
A Dalmatian leaves instructions in his will for his Master and Mistress, and reveals his rating system for dogs, according to breed.
And Then Came Santa
Davey develops self-confidence and learns courage, then faces the ultimate test: a man with a beard in a red suit.
Robert & June Ramseyer
David & Joycine Inverso
John & Suzanne Tilkian
James & Dawn Slanker
Kaye Aurigemma
Keith Perkinson
Patrick Burke & Nancy Rigler
Howard & Joan Tillman
Mark & Joanne Lee
Paul & Debbie Melzer
Jeff Berry
Michael Musick & Robyn Morgan
Lynn & Charles Pfau
Kate & Mike Vitulli
Paul Winch & Stephanie Stoddart
Gerald & Catherine Barry
Robert & Beth Jones
Ashleyann & Ted Carlson
Robert & Judy Dedmon
Sherri Dawn Killion
Lisa Debaere
Rebecca Ann Elish
Bo & Kerri Ledman
L. J. Lindemann
Toni & Howard Levine
Patti Timlin & Sean O'Connor
Margaret Hershey
Mary Ann & Jerome Behles
Jeanne Williams
Kim Gross
Catherine Bogan
Joann & Ken Kempisty
Gail Gockman & Dale Marchini
Julie & Chad Wall
Barbara & Ron Hirn
Kathy & Walt Campbell
Cheryl & Dennis Weber
R. L. Solivais
Debra & Jim Sorensen
Teresa & Donald Green
Lynn Hasenyager
Carol Rodgers
Karen Kempisty
Melinda Kempton & Jane Fleming
Elizabeth Liedl & Leon Schefers
Joan & Norman Weltman
Dorothy & Gerald Kozak
Viday Heffner
Jacqueline & John Bartley
Patricia & David Stibbe
Nancie Vanderbeke
Laure & Steve Hempe
Liza Oliveira
Diane Mullins
Rita Rucinski
Loretta Swanson
Katie Sweeney
Ann & Jim Fleischhacker
Randy & Beverly Meyer
Deb & Brad Trainor
Deborah & Tom Pullen
Taylor Trimby
Christine & Donald Bishofberger
Lauren Emery
Kevin Kaide
Rebecca Horak
Michelle Buchholz
Robert & Elizabeth Hillenbrand
Linda & Michael Kieffer
Jane Walsh-Brown
Kathy & Buddy Pflaume
Kathleen & Gerald Husarik
Jody Fraser
Tom & Eileen Wuellner
Delores Teegarden
Douglas Blakeley
Chari & Jerry Wolfgang
Sue Ushela
Leslie Husarik
Joan Weltman
Chris Knight
Pam Wexler
George Manderino
Meg & Mike Hennessey
Simone Lasch
Ora & Michael Kramer
Eilene Ribbens
Frank & Joan Delatorre
Debbie & Tony Jones
James & Joan Lampada
Joy Huenink
Mike & Patty Katzfey
Earl Kirk
Frederick & Catherine Pearsall
Chris & Jacqui Stockman
Aldona V. Arthofer
Lois Kennedy
Ed & Jeanne Bielski
Bruce Marchant
Ed & Geri Johnson
BP
Tyco
Pfizer
Kimberly Clark
Old Log Cabin Restaurant, Pontiac IL
Carol Chretien, painter
Chicagoland Dalmatian Club
Betsy Frank
Dalmatians Are Best
by Susan on Monday, February 6, 2012
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“I have always held that most dogs are good… Some dogs, of course, are better than others. Dalmatians, naturally, as everyone knows, are best.”
Eugene O’Neill, The Last Will and Testament of Silverdene Emblem O’Neill, 1940
On December 17, 1940, Silverdene Emblem, beloved Dalmatian of Eugene and Carlotta O’Neill, died at Tao House, their home in California. A week later, Eugene wrote a tribute to their Dal in the form of a last will and testament, imagining that Blemie, as he was known, had left this text in the mind of his master before he died. Blemie’s master was a gifted human (he had won the Nobel Prize for literature only four years before) and capable of transcribing Blemie’s words with absolute fidelity.
Anyone who is mourning a Dalmatian, or any dog for that matter, will be moved and charmed by this short work, which elicits smiles as well as tears. Blemie is aware of his superiority as a canine and when he proclaims that dogs “are wiser than men,” human readers will nod in recognition of this irrefutable truth. Noting how many people have loved him, Blemie succumbs to the doggie predisposition to overstate the obvious: “Perhaps it is vain of me to boast when I am so near death, which returns all beasts and vanities to dust, but I have always been an extremely lovable dog.”
Blemie goes on to proclaim that “no dog has ever had a happier life.” He reflects on the inevitability of death, imagines what paradise may be like, and welcomes, above all, the peace that death will bring him. A sensitive soul, Blemie certainly understands that such gloomy thoughts will leave his Master, and especially his Mistress, broken-hearted, and he next sets out to cheer them up.
In the final section of The Last Will and Testament Blemie turns to the future and asks his Mistress, “for love of me” to have another dog in her life now that he is gone. And not, of course, just any dog, even though he considers that “most dogs are good.” Blemie is for a moment nearly as self-absorbed and egocentric as any human when he declares that “Dalmatians, naturally, as everyone knows, are best.” Blemie’s shameless claim is surely meant to bring a smile to his Mistress’s lips and a twinkle to her eye.
The complete version of The Last Will and Testament of Silverdene Emblem O’Neill is available online at: http://www.eoneill.com/texts/blemie/contents.htm.
A word of warning: In 1999, Adrienne Yorinks published a book entitled The Last Will and Testament of an Extremely Distinguished Dog (New York: Henry Holt and Company). Eugene O’Neill is given as the author, with Yorinks listed as illustrator. The book is filled with photos of Yorink’s quilts and a Border Collie.
Yorinks presents an incomplete version of O’Neill’s text. She has cut out nearly one-fifth of the original, eliminating, among other things, every mention of Dalmatians and all Blemie’s personal memories. There is no indication whatsoever in the book or on the blurb that the text has been abridged. What is left is an uninspiring and flavorless version of O’Neill’s work. Do not make the mistake, as I did, of purchasing this volume, which is still in print.
We find Yorinks’s use of O’Neill deplorable and dishonest, to say the least, and join Blemie in the sorrowful wail he most certainly sent from his grave at its publication.