Javier B, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes on the keeper’s behalf that two-way communications is not a recent Facebook thing, but was one of the delights of writing a newspaper column back in the keeper’s day. Letters from readers kept a columnist’s ego somewhat in check, and in shuffling through some of the moldy debris of his life, the keeper ran across a June 18, 1984, letter from Rena Foltz of Lake Geneva that had obviously been prompted by a Trib column in which the keeper wrote about a cat-killing dog named Lucky. Rena wrote in part:
“First let me say I am sick and tired of reading about that rotten dog Lucky who has killed over 50 cats. What the world really needed was for you to get ahold of it and smear it around with your anti-cat smugness and your knack for mis-information.”
Rena went on to point out that it is not natural for dogs to kill cats and one that does so “is just a step away from killing a small child” and “When was the last time you read about a cat attacking and killing a child?”
Rena commented that as a former outdoor writer, the keeper got most of his information from watching Hamm’s beer commercials in taverns; and she concluded her flawlessly typewritten letter with: “I’d love to give you a good swift kick right square in the ass,” and she signed the letter: “Disgusted!”
The keeper did not save many reader-letters, but is happy that Rena’s somehow survived in a very old miscellaneous file: it brought back fond memories, and gives the keeper a chance to clear the air: he may favor dogs over cats, but in no way does he promote any kind of killing, especially of children by either dogs or cats.
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