A Lost Era

came upon this photo while poking around on the Net and it just brought back a flood of memories of taking the El into the big old bad Chicago Loop to see some great 70's exploitation films . Sadly most of these big old movie palaces are gone. In fact by the 70s' most of them were near falling down and rodent infested whch to me added to the atmosphere of the films they were playing. I mean who the hell would want to see a movie like "The Losers" or "The Return Of Count Yorga" in some spiffy polished multiplex anyway. The charm of those films was being able to sit with your feet glued (literally) to the floor while two overgrown rats quibble over a piece of stale popcorn under the seat next to you like some whacked game of Rock Em Sock Em Rodents. Yes...an era gone but not forgotten...

The weirdest for me though was going to see the play Wicked at the rehabbed/rebuilt Oriental Theater last summer. I believe it has some bullshit name now like the Cadillac Palace or Ford Center or some other commercial sounding name
Anyway the whole time I sat through this fine Broadway production I could not believe I was sitting in the same theater that I saw "The Abominable Dr Phibes" in some 30 years earlier.
As I looked around at some of the people sitting near me it became very clear ...
I really missed the rats.

Meet The Gimp aka Melonhead

Well it was bound to happen. We decided to donate all of our old dog Shadow's posessions to the local Boxer rescue. While we were there this mug attached himself to us like a leech from Thatcher Woods slough. So we decided to adopt him. We had planned on adopting another Boxer at some point after Shadows passing but not as early as we did. But.. this guy would not let us leave without him.

According to the folks at Boxer Rebound, he was found running around Southern Illinois with a dislocated hip as well as a mild case of heartworm. Thanks to them he is heartworm free now and has had the necesary surgery done to fix his back leg. Right now he limps a lot due to atrophy of the leg muscle but that should clear up in a few months with proper exercise.

Kudos to all the hard work the folks at Boxer Rebound are doing for the rescue and care of this fantastic breed of dog. They still have a boatload of Boxers looking for good homes and are always aquiring more (sadly) to replace the ones that they do manage to find good caring homes for.

The expense and time they put into caring for these dogs homes in the meantime is astronomical as well and they heartily accept donations monetary and otherwise.

For further info check out their website at

http://www.boxerrebound.com

And believe me its so much fun to tell the kids "Bring out the Gimp" when he needs to go outside