I started my freelance PR business in 2007, after the big ax that swung down on Sugar Hill Records, where I was for 8 wonderful years. After working for other major labels in Nashville for years, Sugar Hill is where I really learned to love my work and its music all at the same time. It wasn’t the first time I was jobless, Rising Tide closed 3 months after I started working there, thanks to Universal Records cuts, but it was the first time I it really terrified me in a deeper way (meaning, I didn’t get drunk all the time.) I didn’t jump ship though, thanks to Nickel Creek and other friends, and thus began my indie publicist status.
So, back to the original purpose of this post…I named my little business Two Dog Media. Because of my beloved street mutts, an English setter mix named Henry– whose tag on his humane association cage said “The perfect gentleman”– and later,Maddy, who, if she had a tag on her would have said “the complete opposite of a perfect lady.” Maddy, a lab/ridgeback mix, ate more shoes than I can count, extension cords, hoses, and unpacked boxes left in the garage — and tried to consume a lightbulb once, and that’s a short list. If I’m not here, I suspect she’s smoking, drinking gin and calling boys. But, for all of that, Maddy is the dog that can read my mind. She’s always under my feet and would, I like to believe, step in front of a moving car to save me . (henry would shrug, and return to his chess game.) She was diagnosed with Lymphoma in December and we thought she had like a month. Here it is April and she lives still.
It may seem weird to some that I got her replacement so soon, but I needed it in many ways. I fell in love with a photo of an English Coonhound called Smiley(because he smiles) on a Georgia-based rescue site. A photo! I never met the dog. That was in January and 2 months later, the rescue had to place him quickly, as the woman who ran it had surgery. I picked up Smiley in Manchanster, TN in early March.
So, Smiley is now Goose – named because Smiley was sort of not him (though he does smile) and kind of a dumb-ish name. Goose wouldn’t step in front of a moving car for me, because he is eternally standing under a tree, hoping something is actually treed (no Goose, there is nothing there, I tell him.) When he is not standing under a tree he is an awesome and comical dog. Who knows how long Maddy will be here, under my desk as I type, but I have Goose to comfort Henry and I. That is, when he is not under a tree, or ripping up down pillows (a lesson for the owner.)
Dogs are good. Pets are good. Growing up we always had horses, dogs, strays, and wild animals – inlcluding a pet squirrel for 10 years – that lived IN our house, in harmony with everyone else. More on that later.
p.s. Ignore my typos if you read this, I’ve been spoiled by years of spellcheck.
