Reggie The Egyptian Rescue Dog: The Final Cut: Hurt Yet Again But I Am Tough: Chapter Eight

OK so Anthony and Susan have left me and I am now with Fay and Bob. Will I ever see them again? I felt safe with them and feeling safe is important for a dog and equally so for humans. I am not frightened because I have Fay and Bob by my side and I have met them and their dog Dillie before. But can I trust them?

I am or was a street dog in a very tough city called Cairo in Egypt. I am tough but that does not mean my heart can’t break. It has been broken before.

I am confused about being placed in another home. I am also ANGRY! I understand as a dog I am to be a companion and a friend to humans and Fay and Bob are nice so why am I so angry. It might because I have had paradise with Anwar and that disappeared then again with Anthony and Susan. I am so confused. What have I done wrong?

Dillie the dog comes to sniff me but I growl like the tough street dog I am (or think I am) and he moves away looking puzzled and sad. Then Bob comes and speaks to me softly saying how he understands I am confused but I am now in my forever home. He puts his hand carefully under my chin knowing many dogs do not like their heads touched by people they do not know. Then I BITE him.

Oh I AM STUPID! I am going to be thrown out in the streets again for being so STUPID. Oh the gods of the Pharaohs please forgive me for being so stupid.

I wait for Bob to smack me or kick me. BUT WHAT? He comes again with blood dripping from his bruised hand asking me to forgive him? A human asking for forgiveness from Reggie the street dog? Suddenly I feel I can trust Bob and shivering with embarrassment and shame I let him pat my head and rub my jowls. Then he asks if I want a belly rub. Of course I do. Then Dillie comes over and he wants a belly rub too so Bob gives us both a belly rub.

I don’t understand how I can be so angry one minute and happy the next. My life in the past months has been a blur. Being tossed into the street in Cairo, bitten by a nasty big dog, placed in an animal hospital, being flown on a big airplane to Toronto, being taken care of by Anthony and Susan and now finding myself with Fay and Bob with Bob telling me I am in a forever home which I understand the meaning of.

Fay and Bob show me to my bed close to Dillie’s bed. I have my own bowl for food and water. My I love the clean Canadian water and the wonderful chicken kibble.

Dillie is an older dog, a brave West Highland Terrier who hunted foxes in Scotland, but we have previously met and are good with each other. He is older than me so I know I must treat him with respect. And he treats me with respect at least for the time being.

Fay gives me the liver treats I love. How did she know I love them? Dillie gets another treat as I hear Fay telling me Dillie farts if he eats liver treats.

Fay and Bob take Dillie and I for a long walk at Sherwood Park where I first met Fay, Bob and Dillie with Anthony and Susan. Are they returning me to Anthony and Susan? No I think not. Dillie and I know the park and romp about on the off-leash trail. So many great smells and we do our business multiple times. Dillie is slower than I but smarter and more sophisticated! I can learn much from him about what it is like to be a Canadian dog.

We all have a long walk at Sherwood Park and return home in Fay and Bob’s automobile and Dillie and I have long drinks of that cold and clean Canadian water and a big bowl of chicken kibble. Then Fay takes me upstairs with Dillie to watch a British television series called “Coronation Street”. I love to hear that British accent. And then Fay watches the BBC NEWS!!! Oh my! My dearest BBC!!!!

Both Dillie and I fall asleep beside Fay before Bob takes us out for an evening walk around the street they live in. So many people with dogs! I hear many people ask who this new dog is you have. Bob says my name Reggie and I let them pat my head.

It is time to go to bed. And Dillie and I go to our beds and both of us fall asleep. I dream of Anwar and hope he is safe in heaven. I dream of Anthony and Susan and thank them. I dream of my new life with Fay and Bob and hope this is my forever home.

I hear crickets outside and fall asleep beginning to feel like Reggie the lucky dog.

RKS 2024 Film: “There is a Monster”:  I Have Seen This Monster

Jack Terry (Joey Collins) is a successful commercial photographer. He is on the verge of an enormously successful series of shoots. Everything is going his way except his relationship with his wife Carol (Ena O’Rourke) which hit the skids after a brief drunken fling with a model he was photographing.

Jack frequently sees a monster and he feels it is attacking him making him weak and hallucinatory. He deteriorates physically and mentally which he attributes to a monster only he can see.

For a “classic” monster film there were no chills running down my spine and the monster wasn’t frightening.

Halfway through the film let me tell you I began to realize I have seen this monster. It is real and indescribably eviller than any monster you have seen on the screen. When I realized that this is the monster that killed my friend the chills did not call but rather a sense of foreboding and dread hoping not to reach the painful conclusion I had reached.

Now this monster is attacking another friend of mine.

If this monster has attacked anyone you may know you may recognize its dreadful power. If not get ready to meet perhaps the most vicious monster known to man.

I knew a Jack Terry.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 93/100.

Ena O’Rourke is absolutely compelling. Just watch her in the restaurant scene where she transcends acting. A ray of sunshine in this monstrously chilling film.

Directed by Mike Taylor, who has encountered this monster, and it will be released on VOD on 30January2024.

You can see the trailer here https://vimeo.com/865316467.

Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog: Please Please Not Again!

My life with foster parents Anthony and Susan is so good. I am protected, loved, well taken care of and oh how I love that cold and clean water in my bowl they refill several times a day. And I happily receive a chunk of what they call a “bagel” or “English muffin” every morning. And I love those chunks of cheese that “accidentally” drop on the floor! But my life has been so uncertain. My master Anwar was an Egyptian journalist who wrote articles in a newspaper critical of the government and he was executed. I was tossed out in the street and survival was a difficult task for a 12-pound dog. But I survived the streets of Cairo unlike many other dogs who were poisoned and shot as that was Cairo’s way of animal control. I am proud and a tough dog that could take on dogs twice my size but that dog that bit me in the market was five times my size.

After the attack the animal doctors saved my life so there are caring Egyptians and hopefully their society will change so that dogs are treated properly. But from the animal hospital I had to take a terrifying flight on an airplane to Toronto from Cairo. Then a new home with my foster parents Anthony and Susan in a different country. I am a very lucky dog. I love my backyard and playing chase with the squirrels and rabbits. I will not hurt them but they are faster than I am and one squirrel seems to like and tease me and laugh at me as he sits on the fence in the backyard chattering away like he is laughing at me! I am so happy and feel so safe.

I fear the army will come and arrest Anthony and Susan and execute them like they did to Anwar in Egypt. Please understand my fear. Your master kidnapped by the army and executed and you are thrown out into the street. I am so frightened it will happen again. I think I said to you I watched a BBC documentary on post traumatic stress disorder with British soldiers. I am not a doctor but I think I may have this problem. This may be the reason of my fear that it may happen again. Maybe this is why I lose my temper and lunge out at big dogs so that they will not hurt me like the one in Cairo did. You humans may see me as a dog but I have feelings and emotions like you humans have. I want some peace and stability.

I felt something was not right when I saw Susan crying and Anthony speaking to her in a strange shaky tone I never heard before. Anthony came up to me and gave me a big hug and said you are going to your “forever parents” today. What are forever parents?

We have a big Sunday breakfast with Anthony and Susan preparing a delicious smelling food called blueberry waffles and maple syrup. I have a big bowl of ground beef and rice. I love meat! Anthony and Susan have coffee after their meal. I know it is coffee as Anwar would have it in the morning and I remember its smell. I go for a walk around the street and Anthony and Susan put me in their car.

We travel to a house where they take me out of the car and knock on a door and I see Bob and Fay! And yes their dog Dillie who I met in a park called Sherwood. Anthony looks at me and says this is my forever home. Oh no! Susan and Anthony talk for a long time to Fay and Bob and I hear my name many times. Dillie their dog comes up to me and we have a few sniffs and we are friends! We chase a squirrel in their backyard. He is older than me but has lots of energy. I like him. I like Fay and Bob but wait Anthony and Susan are leaving me behind. Please Please not again. Both Anthony and Susan have tears streaming down their face.

RKS Literature: Love or Madness? (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

“He was not so much in love with Gloria as mad for her. Unless he could have her near to him again, kiss her, hold her close and acquiescent, he wanted nothing more from life. By her three minutes of utter unwavering indifference the girl had lifter herself from a high but somewhat casual position in his mind, to be instead his total preoccupation. However much his wild thoughts wavered between a passionate desire for her kisses and equally passionate craving to hurt and mar her, the residue of his mind craved in finer fashion to possess the triumphant soul that had shone through those three minutes. She was beautiful but especially she was without mercy. He must own that strength that could send him away.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Beautiful and Damned”, 1922

RKS 2024 Film: “Tōtem”: The Wrenching Realization of Death and Life on its Flip Side

Sol (Naima Sentíes) is a nineish year-old Mexican girl. Her artistic father Ton is terminally ill and death hovers. His family decides to celebrate his birthday with a large party. Sol arrives at her aunt’s house early for the party. Ton’s husband Nuria has taken to drinking heavily unable to process the impending death of her husband Ton. Mini relationship explosions are falling like shells around Sol.

Sol repeatedly asks to see her father Ton but is gently guided away from that by family members replete with excuses and perhaps with misguided good faith. One senses she is drifting through the impending death of her father not comprehending the finality of death. And how can she comprehend if no one in the family explains to her exactly what death is. They whisper amongst each other about it.

The movie may strike you more as a documentary without any purpose other than eavesdropping on the extended family and all its problems. Sol watches Nuria’s drinking, listens to family arguments, helps Nuria bake a cake, breaks some pottery, watches a spiritualist clean the house of evil spirits (and she also sells Tupperware), sees her cell phone obsessed teen cousins argue, showers being taken, talks with a pet dog and parrot etc.

Sounds dull doesn’t it but be patient and wait. In a momentous moment Sol realizes that her father is dying and in so doing her “drifting” is smashed and she realizes what life is. Many of us have had that moment realizing what death it is and it can be enormous. Sol may have experienced earlier than most. From personal experience, having lost a father at nine years old I can identify with Sol.

A slow-moving film that has an explosive nuclear finish. You may not understand it or like me you may have lived it and know it all to well. A strange birthday where life and death are equally celebrated.

A subtle masterpiece by Director Lila Avilés.

Limited Canadian theatrical release commencing 25Janary2024.

You can watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEYx_vOof1w

RKS 2024 Film Rating 96/100.

Travels to a Different Time: Travels of My Mother: ?February1971: Palma de Mallorca, Spain and Amsterdam, Holland

Dear Boys;

It’s Sunday and I have no doubt in the world. The church chimes started at 7 a.m. and rang every 15 minutes. They seemed to be saying AND DON’T YOU FORGET IT!

Please do not throw out this envelope. I expect to be here for two weeks. Please write me TONIGHT and be sure to put HOLLAND on it. The address is in the envelope. I left at 3:30 this afternoon from Palma and arrived in Frankfurt at 3:30 p.m. I changed planes and arrived in Amsterdam at 10:45 p.m. and I was so tired I could barely see. I arrived at the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky a very old hotel in the centre of the city. I have a cute room with a bed like a board called a ZOMERKRANT and it must be 7 feet long. The bathroom is so clean you can see your face in the tiles and the taps are shiny. The maids at the hotel are all men. Four come in at a time wearing pink smocks to clean.

I had my first Dutch breakfast with two kinds of cold meat and all types of bread, jams, cheeses and coffee. The breakfast is included in the room rate. I was so full I couldn’t eat again until dinner. I met an older German and he had travelled all over Canada. After breakfast I went out for a walk but t was so cold and damp I decided to return to the hotel and write you a letter. I would love to hear from you. I read your letters over and over. Please write tonight. Andy please mail it downtown as it will leave sooner.

Love Mum

RKS Literature: The Growth of Intimacy (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

“The growth of intimacy is like that. First one gives off his best picture, the bright and finished product mended with bluff and falsehood and humour. Then more details are required and one paints a second portrait, and a third-before long the best lines cancel out- and the secret is exposed at last; the planes of the pictures have intermingled and given us away, and although we paint and paint we can longer sell the picture. We must be satisfied with hoping that fatuous accounts of ourselves as we make to our wives, children and business associates are accepted as true.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Beautiful and Damned”, 1922

RKS Literature: That Faintly Odorous Atmosphere of the Cave and the Nursery (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

“Almost impersonally he was convinced that no woman he had ever met compared in any way with Gloria. She was deeply herself; she was immeasurably sincere-of these things he was certain. Besides her the two dozen schoolgirls and debutantes, young married woman and waifs and strays whom he had known were so many females, in the world’s most contemptuous sense, breeders and bearers, exuding still that faintly odorous atmosphere of the cave and the nursery.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Beautiful and the Dammed”, 1922.

RKS 2024 Film: “Some Other Woman”: The Women are not the Problem Here! Who is Taking Over Whom?

With the camera on a Caribbean Island a female narration sets forth a legend of the island with a backdrop of two women in a life and death struggle in the water. The island legend is of a fisherman is on his boat with his beautiful pregnant wife and encounters a storm which tosses his wife overboard never to be seen again. He spends the rest of his life on the sea searching for his wife while her spirit looks to return to a life she has lost. Each of them is looking for a past that has vanished.

Eve (Amanda Crew) is temporarily on the island with her husband Peter (Tom Felton) who is in partnership with Sal (Rick Fox) developing and selling property on the island. Eve is looking for a less exotic locale to raise her family which despite trying she is yet to have as she has difficulty in conceiving and loses her baby yet again. This is very upsetting to her and she sinks into severe anxiety apparently not correctly remembering some important facts in her life such as telling Peter they were engaged on the island which makes an increasingly concerned Peter even more frightened about Eve losing her mind as Peter retorts we were engaged in Amsterdam. She visits a physician for an examination and is prescribed some sedatives and her sanity further crumbles to the point that a mysterious woman Renata (Ashley Green Khoury) begins to take her identity and life. Then Eve’s story repeats itself with Renata. Renata thinks this other woman Eve is trying to assume her identity A Groundhog Day of loss of the mind. What is the common thread dear viewer……Peter! Think closely about this. I have told you that the women in the film may not be the problem here.

The film slowly converts from a thriller to a terrifying glimpse of what it could be like losing one’s mind. Not being taken seriously, derided, mocked and a terrible fear of loss of your identity! A terrible tale about two women losing their mind in an identical fashion. Wait! Tear yourself away from the women and focus for a moment. How odd both Renata and Eve have the same downward spiral? Things are not making sense.

Pay attention to that rather pained look you will see in Peter’s eyes? Take a wild leap of interpretation for a late film moment where you are compelled to make some conclusion of what is occurring. That personal challenge thrust you way by your own mind is perhaps the best part of this film shot on the Caymans.

Opens in Canadian cinemas on 12January2024. Opened in U.S. cinemas on 5January2024.

RKS 2024 Film Rating: 87/100.

Travels to a Different Time: Travels of My Mother: 4February1971: Palma de Mallorca, Spain: A $1 Lunch of Steak, Mushrooms, Spinach, Half a Bottle of Wine and Coffee

Dear Boys:

Don’t throw envelopes out as I want to save the stamps.

I am sitting in the sun and is 85 degrees. I wish I brought some lighter clothes. I have had such a nice time-today I visited the castle bult in 1300. I walked to it and it was a long one. I was exhausted upon reaching it and forced myself to go through it. It is at the top of the city. The magnificence of their castle you wouldn’t believe. Entrance fee was 18 cents. I took the bus down and that cost three cents.

For lunch a steak, mushrooms, creamed spinach and coffee for $1. So good I have my appetite back. I then bought a silver thimble for Diane.

I think everyone must buy a pair of Spanish shoes. I bought a pair today, such beautiful soft leather in two shades of brown.

Today I saw men lugging coal. They must have hotels so ancient. Just talked to the waiter and he said they did.

Just woke up and it is almost 11.

Don’t forget the meat in the freezer. The oranges are huge and I bought a bag for 18 cents. I eat a couple each day. So juicy when you eat them the juice squirts everywhere.

I miss you both very much. I wish you could share all this with me. It is very hard to be alone. I saw a mother with two of her boys. I think she was from England and it nearly made me cry. I will be coming home my goodness I have seen so many things here. Last night I went out with V.T.  the lady who is in charge of the American tour. We had a wonderful dinner together. She is Barb’s age. Her father died 5 years ago. She has been very good to me. She has invited to several of the tour parties for free.

Well dears that is all for today. I miss you.

Love Mum