Reggie The Egyptian Rescue Dog: The Final Cut: Canada My New Home! Chapter Three

There is a big stir at Toronto Pearson Airport when our crates are unloaded from the airplane and placed in the cargo area. There are television cameras and journalists like my deceased master Anwar. I wonder if anyone is watching us in Egypt? Many journalists are interested in me knowing Anwar was my master. They know of his execution and are curious to see me.

I am very tired and so frightened I am shaking but I am also excited. The foster parents are picking us up to take us to their home. Are they kind masters and mistresses?  I am off the street for now. Are foster parents arrested in the middle of the night like Anwar was? I am a bit mixed up and so very tired. So tired.

A tall man with a beard and a lady come up to me and softly call my name. They attempt to pet me but I am afraid of stranger’s hands and feet as I was hit and kicked so many times in Egypt. I move back and give a little growl but they do not try and hit or kick me.

Oh it has been so long since I had a leash and collar! It feels good although strange. I have been a street dog for a few months but this leash and collar remind me of Anwar who is gone and I will never see him again until I go to The Land Beyond.

The man’s name is Anthony and the lady is called Susan. They give me a treat they called dried liver which tastes scrumptious. If I do what they say they are so happy and say, “Good boy Reggie” and sometimes even give me a treat. I think I would do just about anything for these liver treats! We all go to my foster parent’s car and there is a big blanket on the back seat and they put me on it saying we will be home soon. I have not had a real home in many months. I wonder if we can watch the BBC news every night like I used to do with Anwar.

I fall asleep in the car and wake up in front of a house so different than the houses in Egypt. Anthony and Susan have a green backyard full of plants and thick grass and I have a good roll in it and bark a thank you to these strangers. They show me their house and I have my own bed and blanket and my own bowl for water and food! I have a big drink of cold and clean water and I have some crunchy food they call chicken kibble.

We all go out for a walk and I pull hard on the leash. I am so excited to see other dogs being walked and many are happy to see me. They sniff me and wag their tails and some want to play. No one shouts or curses me. I am beginning to like Canada! But suddenly a big dog like the one who attacked me in Cairo barks at me and although I am terrified, I lunge and bark at him furiously. I have never lost my temper like this before. Susan and Anthony calmly pull me back knowing I was attacked and they say that they will protect me from all dangers and what happened to me in Egypt will never happen in Canada.

So, we go home and Anthony watches the BBC news and this makes me feel sad and happy at the same time. I fall asleep at Anthony’s feet. Soon it is time for bed and Anthony takes me out for a walk saying I should pee and poo outside. I understand this as this is what Anwar taught me.

I am looking forward to a sleep in my new bed and having clean water to drink anytime I want! As I fall asleep I think about all the dogs that were on the airplane with me. I am sure they do not understand English and I hope they are having a good time in their new country. I have only been here a few hours but I am finding out what feeling safe is like. But will I be loved? I do not know what foster parents are but I am certain I will learn.

I wake up howling in the dark in the kitchen where my bed is. Where am I? Are there soldiers at the door? Anthony comes down and speaks to me softly. I jump in his arms and he pats me and rocks me back and forth on the sofa. We both fall asleep and I now know I am safe in Canada.

RKS 2024 Film: “All To Play For” (Rien à Perdre): Boxed in by the State!

Sylvie (Virgine Efira) is a widow in Bretange, France with teenage son Jean Jacques and a younger boy Sofiane. While at work as a barmaid on the evening shift Sofiane, who has behavioural problems, suffers second degree burns while attempting to cook some fries. Older brother Jean Jacques was on his way home from trumpet practice and was not at home when the accident happened so the hospital treating Sofiane reported that Sofiane was alone at home and days later the police and child welfare services swoop in and take Sofiane into protective custody without any warning so viewers may think is state kidnapping and take poor Sylvie’s side as a victim of state abuse.

Sylvie retains counsel for a hearing before a judge who agrees with child welfare that Sofiane should be placed in foster care for 6 months with visitation rights of twice a month. Sylvie is advised by her lawyer to play it cool but her frustration and anger snowballs and she falls further away from Sofiane by not “playing the game” which is be passive and acquiesce to state kidnapping. She spins out of control and there are incidents that may cause you to question her fitness as a mother. Each act of her aggression is but a potential example to the state of her unsuitability as a parent. Her defiance of the state is understandable but is this is a question of her immaturity and ultimately her proper judgement as a parent to care for Sofiane?

The result is she has boxed herself in so deeply she has nothing to lose which is the proper translation of “Rien à Perdre”. And when you have nothing to lose you take desperate measures.

A tremendous performance by Efira in this Delphine Deloget film.

You can see the trailer here https://vimeo.com/889985378.

Limited Canadian release on 12January2024 in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Sudbury.

If you would like to watch a documentary on how corrupt and inefficient the California foster care system is see my review of “Failure to Protect” https://a-little-birdie-told-me.ca/2023/10/14/rks-2023-film-failure-to-protect-criminals-having-more-rights-than-parents-in-the-web-of-child-protective-services-state-child-abduction-a-k-a-protective-custody/

RKS 2024 Film Rating: 84/100.

RKS 2024 Wine: Do You Believe in the Score? Farmer’s Leap Random Shot 2020 Shiraz’s 96

Retailers of wine love to display over 89 wines that will capture the consumer’s eye. Yes, every once and awhile my name pops up on the shelves or in a magazine advertising the wine. Take or leave it as to scores. My advice is to find a reviewer you are consistently in agreement with and follow your guru. Perhaps you may just want to ask if they are in the “business of reviewing wine”. Who pays their salary? Are they in the over 89 game simply to be featured in the shelf displays to “gain recognition”? Are their scores suspiciously high on a consistent basis? Are they charging winemakers a fee to review or some other fee such as having a critic’s rating affixed to bottle with the critic’s name? You are the best critic of course and if you are happy with that bottle of peach flavoured Chardonnay good on you mate!

This Farmer’s Leap Random Shot 2020 Shiraz from Padthaway in South Australia has an impressive 96 from the Limestone Coast Wine Show. And yes want to compete in the show? Well often you must pay an entrance fee, table fees and even a fee for affixing a wine show sticker on your bottle. Wine shows and competitions are for profit. Follow the money!

Aroma: A good measure of oak in this with corresponding vanilla and coconut. Big time blackberry, black cherry, cola and a small dribble of dark chocolate.

Palate: Broad based and evenly spread tannins. Blackberry and black currant rule the roost but it lacks depth obfuscated by a bit of sourness. It is hot at 14.5% alcohol.

Personality: A real charmer on the nose with skillful use of oak but flash does not always equate with cash.

Food Match: Hot Italian sausage on a bun aka a Friday night wine. 

Cellarbility: Given its moderate cost perhaps there is nothing to lose by setting aside a few and trying over a three-year period but I would expect minimal ageing improvability.

Price: $16.95 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 89/100. 2021 Limestone Coast Wine Show 96.

(Farmer’s Leap Random Shot 2020 Padthaway Shiraz, Farmer’s Leap Wines, Padthaway, South Australia, 750 mL, 14.5%).

Reggie The Egyptian Rescue Dog: The Final Cut: My Master is Dead What Hope Exists for Me? Chapter Two

As my health improves, I pay some attention to the television monitor in the recovery room of the animal hospital. I had watched BBC News with Anwar many times and I hear with crushing sorrow, so great I query if you can feel my heart breaking, that Anwar has been executed as a traitor to Egypt. An article or two critical of the current government and he is a doomed seditionist!

I am so sad I want to crawl up and die. My master killed like a street dog.

My friends tell me we are travelling to a distant land called Canada. I have seen a few BBC documentaries on Canada. I remember snow and terrible cold. But I am so devastated and unhappy about Egypt if I can escape this murderous nation to both humans and dogs I have hope.

There was a Canadian woman in our hospital and she pointed to me as a refugee for rescue. I think a refugee is some creature that has no home to welcome it. I am contemplating a new life with people that care and respect me. I do not want to be beaten, kicked and spat on. I have the ancient blood of the Pharaohs in me. If I go to this strange land I will bring the Pharaohs’ spirit with me.

Many of us are excited about this strange land Canada. I tell my dog friends that from what I know about Canada from the BBC news and documentaries I have seen that it is a calm country. There are no big demonstrations and bloody confrontations like there are here in Egypt. These Canadians respect dogs much more than in Egypt, I hope!

There is some talk I hear from the Canadian lady at our hospital that there are many Canadian humans waiting to help us. Some dogs are so frightened by a bad rumour we are going to be made into sausages in Canada. I tell them based on BBC broadcasts this is impossible as Canadians are compassionate.

We are selected for transport to Canada. We have been spayed, deloused and undergone parasitic treatment.

The big day has come. We are transported in a big truck to the airport in Cairo as we await our flight to Toronto. We are given a last walk and have a chance to pee and poo and we are given some chopped goat meat that makes us very sleepy. We are placed in cages and placed in what I know as an airplane from the BBC news I have seen. I hear people talking in English we have all be given sedatives that make us sleep and reduce our anxiety.

We are very sleepy and do not pay attention to the dark and cool place we are placed in the airplane. There is a veterinarian from Canada on the airplane called Dr. Murray who sits with us for 12 hours until we arrive in Toronto and makes sure we are let out of our cages so we can do our business.

So we arrive and there are foster parents who will help us get acclimatized to this strange country. Are foster parents new masters and mistresses? Many are crying being so happy to see us safe and they try and hug us and tell us we are safe. We are smart street dogs and can’t simply trust humans that have abused us.  I try to bark out that I think we are safe. We are in CANADA. A country that loves dogs. We have hope. Where are the families that will take care of us?

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

Dear Barb:

Just about ready to out to dinner with a couple I met. They are returning to New York tomorrow and they will mail this letter for me.

My money came in today. I am staying here another week. I wish I could stay forever. There are only two flights a week to Amsterdam, Saturday, and Sunday. I went to Lufthansa today and they couldn’t be nicer and I’d have no trouble at all. They told me how to get to the airport and how to find hotels in Amsterdam.

I must have walked 15 miles today and I never liked any place so much! It is sunny and 70 degrees in the sun. I spend my whole day on narrow streets. The shoes do not fit me here and I must have tried 30 pairs on. There are no half sizes. I bought only buttons. What a nut.

I took Barry to meet Nancy last night as he is more her age I thought but we both thought he was a phony. He wants to take me out and expects more than that if you know what I mean. I am moving out of here before he arrives.

I adore the coffee in the open-air cafes here. I ate a lobster today and it was so good. By mistake I went into a man’s washroom and while I was in there a man came in and my heart almost stopped but I stayed locked in in can until he left.

I am afraid I have put some weight on and that makes me mad. Oh well. It must be all the milk in the coffee I am drinking. I had awful cramps and the runs a few days ago. I guess my mother was right when she said don’t drink the water in Europe.

Must get dressed.

Love Mum

Reggie The Egyptian Rescue Dog: The Final Cut: My Life in Egypt is Ending: Chapter One

After I was badly bitten by that big dog guarding the public market in Cairo I only remember running away in a panic and collapsing in pain and crying and then slipping into unconsciousness.

I woke up in a strange place with odd smells and there are wires attached to my chest and funny beeping noises. My leg has a big bandage on it and there are blood stains on it. There are people in white coats nearby and as my Arabic is so weak I don’t understand what they are saying. Anwar and I watched so much English television and he only spoke to me in English I am not sure what these people are saying.

I feel dizzy and want to throw up and have a terrible pounding in my head. I squeal in pain and I cry for my master Anwar. Where are you Anwar! A lady in a hijab comes to me and gently says something I don’t understand but she strokes my head and kisses my forehead and I feel a jab in my leg and the pain goes far away maybe far away as Anwar may be. My crying stops and I drift off to sleep. My mind is back with Anwar as we sit and watch cartoons on the television and he gives me belly rubs and I feel so safe and loved. Anwar must be coming to get me soon. Anwar where are you. Please come and take me home. I do not like this bad dream.

I wake up and there is no Anwar just men and women in white coats who speak to me nicely and pull off the wires from my body. I am a bit dizzy but I feel much better. They speak to me softly and stroke my head. I begin to feel safe but I miss Anwar so much I feel like crying and I start to whimper. But a big man with a beard comes to me and says my name Reggie! He turns me over and gives me a tummy rub. I feel very safe although I do not understand why I am in this place. I think these are good humans trying to help me.

I fall asleep again but wake up with other dogs who are in their own little beds. There are many of them of all sizes and breeds. I recognize a couple of my street friends. They tell me I am in a special place called a hospital where these people in white coats help sick dogs. They tell me I will not be kicked or spat on and that I am safe.

Then food comes for all of us and lots of clean water. I eat and drink like I have not done in weeks. My hair is dirty and full of fleas and tics. I am scrawny and very weak. I am embarrassed and ashamed but another man in a white comes up to me and says, “Reggie let me hug you and tell you we love you here. You are safe. We are going to make you well.”

The man takes me to a big tub of warm water and I get a special shampoo that kills the bugs crawling over my skin. Another lady gives me a shave down of all my hair. I feel cool and exceptionally clean.

My friends tell me I will be checked very carefully by “vets” who are doctors for pets. They are so kind to me I am beginning to trust humans again. They stick needles in me to take blood for “tests”? They inject medicine with these needles. My friends tell me you are going on a trip with us Reggie and that we will all be safe in a place far away. I do not want to go far away. I want to be with Anwar. Anwar where are you?

So I stay at this home where I feel safe and cared for and my friends tell me we may soon be going to another place far away where humans are waiting to care and love us. As Anwar has not come to take me home I sadly feel he has left me. Why? What did I do wrong?

But I feel good. I feel strong. My stomach is full. The bugs have stopped crawling over me but I want Anwar or someone that will love me and teat me as special as Anwar did.

A few days later I see a lady who is not Egyptian come into our place and as I understand English she says to the men and women in white coats she is from a rescue society in Toronto, Canada that will take twenty or so of us to a place called Toronto to families that will love and care for us. What is Canada? Where is Canada? How will we get there? Will there be people there who will kick us, spit on us, try and shoot us dead? I tell the dogs what I understand as I understand English so well. They are confused and frightened but anything should be better than Cairo….I hope.

RKS Health: Your Prostate: Elevated PSA Urologist Follow Up: Will They Afford You Any Dignity? Facing The Rectal Firing Squad!

Well fellows your PSA levels as indicated by your blood test are above the normal level and a follow up appointment has been booked with a urologist. What to expect?

  1. Will Your Dignity Be Preserved?

As you check in with reception at your urologist hopefully you can have a long hallway to pace up and down before you meet the firing squad. Pacing may relieve your stress perhaps more effectively than a double martini or a benzo.

  • Do They Understand Your Anxiety?

Assuming you are not a GI Joe you really aren’t looking forward to this…hopefully. Do those medicos make you strip and put on a hospital gown to rub your vulnerability up where they are going to lube and give you a digital rectal examination? Nakedness is your humiliation and their power.

  • We Have Seen This Before So Don’t Fret!

Yes they may have seen butts and other assorted male organs hundreds of times before so don’t sweat it they say. But you the patient derive no comfort from this. You haven’t been a vulnerable specimen a hundred times. Cruel and uncompassionate words.

  • Welcome to the Rectum Clockwork Orange Violence

DRE pros. Have a PSAsutra favourite position? Sideway hugging the knees or doggie style? It isn’t that bad. It is the anticipation that shreds the mind. Best to at least take off your shoes for the squat!

  • What Follows?

Pee in the bucket to measure urine retention. Easy Peesy! Bladder ultrasound.

  • Meet and Greet or Flee Before The Meet?

No problem? Most likely not. Prostate cancer is no joke so you will be asked a hundred questions and then if you are not toast you find out your risks for developing prostate cancer. Fortunate ones may be told your enlarged prostate needs to be shrunk so big Pharma to the rescue with 50 mgs of Mirabegron. No caffeine please they may say. Move to a monastery is best.

  • Suck it Up Dude!

I blame myself for being cautious. I asked for a PSA a rather denigrated test as being unreliable but after peeing up a storm on a flight back from Lisbon I put up the white flag and surrendered and started this whole process. I am trying to give you a lighthearted view of the urologist visit to cheer you up and encourage you to have the PSA so as you ferociously pace the hallways you can think of me as your sacrificial animal.

Update: The Albanian Association of Urologists have issued an arrest warrant for the author of this article claiming an affront to their organization. Security details have been assigned to prevent his kidnapping to Tirana.

Travels to a Different Time: Travels to a Different Time: 4February1971: Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Dear Boys:

Tomorrow I am heading for Frankfurt. I have had a wonderful time here but am getting a twinge of homesickness so had better get around to my business if I want to see Holland.

I had my hair done today and I look like a Spanish Senorita-hair too high. I don’t like it.

I bought you both beautiful leather gloves. I was sick yesterday-such a stomach-ache and the runs. I am OK now but it was awful.

The stewardess I came over with phoned this morning and she had been talking with your sister Barbara in New York so I know that all is OK.

I may stay in Nice for two days on the way, or even a week. I will write you as soon as I know where I will be.

I hope you are both OK. I do miss you but feel that this is good for both of you. You must become independent. Andy has had a crack at it and you Robert are doing a pretty good job. In a way it is hard for all of us.

I met a British film director last evening at the hotel. I had dinner with him. He has kids your age. If we ever go to London we have a place to stay.

I am eating more now and had a beautiful lunch of beef on a stick and bought a little cake on the street and ate it on the street and no one cares here or looks at you.

The bus driver yesterday was singing the whole trip and I noticed a lady picking her nose and very open about it not like you Rob. Then a man scratching his rear. No one here cares what they do. On the next bus I took after dinner the driver was whistling the whole trip. I have seen so much here I will have to tell you about. It is a different world here in Spain. The Spanish people rarely smile. They wear very dark clothes which is so different from Jamaica. But they do sing here all alone walking down the street. There is only room for one person on the sidewalks. There are hundreds of cabs all small cars. I saw a general in a big car today with a flag on it.

It is fun to see other places but I am happy to be a Canadian and very proud of it. There are a few Canadians here but I have yet to meet one.

Love Mum

Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog: INTRODUCTION

Hello. Let me introduce myself. My name is Reggie and I am the luckiest and happiest dog in the world. Please read my story to determine why I am saying this.

Before we start my story, I well tell you I am a 15-year-old Shih Tzu mix living with Master Bob and Mistress Fay in Toronto, Canada. I am becoming a senior dog. My legs are a bit stiff and I must bark around 5 every morning so that Bob or Fay can come downstairs and put me out to pee in the backyard. When you are a senior dog (and a person!) you must go the bathroom more frequently! But I get carried up to their bed and can snuggle under the covers and fall back to a wonderful sleep knowing I am safe and loved. This was not always the case in Egypt.

I was born in an Egyptian city called Cairo. I can’t remember who my parents were as that was so long ago. But I recall I had an owner named Anwar who lived alone in a small house just outside the city centre.

Anwar was a well-known journalist for a national newspaper. He was perpetually happy and laughing after he said his morning prayers. He would feed me and then partake of his breakfast with two cups of tea and after that, of course making sure I had a small piece of date, would clip a leash onto my collar and we would go for a walk. I pranced and swaggered being so very proud to be with Anwar. There were numerous dogs of all sizes running wild in the streets. I thought I was superior to them as I had a home, food, water and a human who hugged me, played with me and fed me. It was a sense of superiority I came to regret.

I was with Anwar for two years enjoying a happy life. We would watch a lot of television most of which was in English so that is how I learnt to speak and understand English and learnt about politics. I would sit on his lap or beside him and if I was fortunate would get my tummy rubbed. That felt so good!

So you may ask how did I get the name Reggie? Anwar frequently watched an American cartoon called “Archie” and his favourite character was called Reggie!

As I am an old dog my memory is not as good as it used to be. I learnt about cognitive decline from some documentaries I watched with Anwar. The identical deterioration happens to humans when they become older.

What I remember very clearly was that one evening there was a frantic banging on Anwar’s door with many angry voices outside shouting, “We are the army. Open your door!” Anwar opened the door and heavily armed soldiers stormed into our house. The soldiers informed him he was under arrest for sedition because of his articles in the newspaper criticizing the government. This is the last I saw of Anwar. One of the soldiers kicked me hard and shooed me out of my house shouting horrible insults to me. This soldier pointed his gun at me and said he was going to kill me like the dirty dog he thought I was but another soldier stopped him and I ran off frightened and confused.

It was the middle of the night and I had nowhere to go. There was no one to feed me and give me water and the tummy rubs that I loved.I never knew that humans could be so mean to dogs. I never hurt them. I never barked at them yet here I was all alone on the streets with many other dogs and cats. I did make a few friends with some of the smaller dogs. The big dogs sometimes growled and barked at me which frightened me.

So how did I live? I lived in the streets hiding in abandoned cardboard boxes during the night. I was close to an outdoor market and most of the time so I would go there and beg for food and occasionally I would be tossed a goat bone but most of the time the merchants would spit and say bad words to me and some tried to kick me.

My canine companions warned me that the life of an unwanted dog was frightening as police and animal control would often shoot or poison strays. Very few people cared about stray animals in Cairo and killing them was a way to control them and not to find them homes with caring masters and mistresses.

One day I was so hungry as there was no food or garbage with food in it I could eat. Inside the gates to the public market there was a guard dog who was at least five times my size. I think it was a Rottenwhiler. I was starving so I snuck under the fence and thinking the big dog was not looking I started to eat food from his bowl but before I knew what happened out of nowhere he bounded up to me and bit my leg. I ran away under the fence and as he was chained to the gate he could not catch me. But I had a big gash in my leg and was bleeding. I was hurting so very much I closed my eyes and cried like I have never cried before. This is where my journey to Canada started.

RKS 2024 Wine: A Nemea Agiorgitiko Reserva From Seméli in Greece

There is a lack of “knock out of the park” Greek red wines flowing into Canada. They are obviously out there somewhere and at this point stuck in Greece. We valiantly try again with a 2017 Nemea Agiorgitiko Reserva.

Aroma: Rigid and tight. Blackberry, black cherry, cherry pie and dark chocolate.

Palate: Very wound up and tight. What is this wine hiding from. Tannic but not ferociously so like a young Xinomavro. It needs to hit the beaches in the Aegean to chill out. Blackberry smothered by tannins so it is no go-go dancer or a brazen tourist trying to bouzouki in the less than ritzy bouzouki hangouts in Thessaloniki where they (mostly Israelis) smash plates all night on the floor.

Personality: My Athenian psychotherapist says I am just too young but will eventually shine or it just may be I don’t have it.

Food match: Absolutely and unequivocally made for consumption with food. Roz Bif at The Grand Bretagne Hotel in Athens or rooftop restaurant at the Hotel Stanley (in a bit of a rougher area of Athens) both with a spectacular view of the Parthenon!

Cellarbility: Give this wine until 2027 to be superb or to toss out. Sorry can’t read the crystal ball on this one.

Price: $ 21.95 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 85/100.

(Seméli 2017 Nemea Agiorgitiko Reserva, PDO/AOP Nemea, Seméli, Koutsi, Nemea, Greece, 750 mL,14%).