{"id":4402,"date":"2018-04-30T14:03:25","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T18:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/?p=4402"},"modified":"2018-05-24T12:10:18","modified_gmt":"2018-05-24T16:10:18","slug":"n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/","title":{"rendered":"This \u2018n That | Honor your pet: This one\u2019s for you, Sebastian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Mims Cushing<br \/>\n<\/em><em>mail@floridanewsline.com<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">May 3 through May 9 is National Pet Week \u2014 that time of the year when you should honor your pet whatever it may be. Here, I will honor my first dog, my dear, long-ago little Sebastian. Thank you, Sebastian. You were my first love. <\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I was eight I hounded my parents for a dog. I envisioned a pooch so fully loaded with fur that I could nestle my face in the scruff of its neck. Fur so thick I could whisper my darkest secrets into its souffl\u00e9 of fluff, which would make any of my secrets inaudible \u2014 except to him. Fur so downy it would dissolve my childhood and teenage tears.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was thinking sled dog, hair of fleece, and white. Mother was fixated on something else. She was bent on a hairless dog. A miniature dachshund. Guess who won. (Being allergic to dogs, she thought it wouldn\u2019t shed. They do and it did.) <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One Sunday in 1954 we set out for Darien, Ct. from Larchmont, N.Y., to go to a miniature dachshund breeder. The litter of four teeny chocolate puppies, whose names all began with the letter \u201cS,\u201d was beguiling, angelic. Samantha and Sebastian were the top contenders. I favored the female. Mom, who had not given birth in three tries to a boy, was partial to the male. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cAn aristocrat,\u201d Mother called him, which will give you an idea of the type of treatment he received. She loved the name Sebastian and we nicknamed him \u201cSebas,\u201d pronounced \u201cSi bas,\u201d (the s is silent) which means \u201cso low\u201d in French. What he lacked in fur he made up for in tail, a perpetually wagging metronome that could only mean joy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though the dog was not what I\u2019d envisioned, I was elated and came up with various maladies so I could stay home from school and play with the pup. Mother allowed this, but if she hadn\u2019t I might not be so pathetic about knowing state capitals and so much more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dad didn\u2019t believe in feeding our king of dogs store-bought dog food. He spoon-fed him his famous moussaka, and let him lick cherry pie off his fingers. Si Bas adored cheese and learned to balance Brie on the end of his nose. He\u2019d \u201cSit!\u201d for a long time until Dad would holler, \u201cOk!\u201d Si Bas would growl and throw his snout left and right to loosen the melting cheese, stuck like Scotch tape, and gobble it down. I was thrilled to have a dog who would eat my dinner serving of trout that dad cooked. I loved dropping the happy dog forkfuls of the nasty fish from my plate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The mini Dachsy, as you can imagine, soon blossomed into a robust 20 lb. hoglet, in dire need of a gym for dogs. Dad\u2019s cooking continued. In winter he loved to settle in on snowy, arctic weekends and cook up pies and cakes and casseroles all day. Sebastian, his most ardent consumer and family gourmand, scarfed all he was given with nary an Alka Seltzer in his bowl for dessert. He did have to \u2014 to be polite about it \u2014 be taken for many a walk on days when Dad played chef.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One year when I was in college, alas, he was ailing from something \u2014 perhaps dyspepsia. Mother slept in a sleeping bag near him on the kitchen floor many nights until he died at the age of 14.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When my son Jay was two years old, I gave in to his pleas for a dog. We chose a Samoyed whom I named Vodka. She was the softest, whitest dog I could find. I adored him as did Jay. I never did ask him if he would have preferred a hairless dog.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Mims Cushing mail@floridanewsline.com May 3 through May 9 is National Pet Week \u2014 that time of the year when you should honor your pet whatever it may be. Here, I will honor my first dog, my dear, long-ago little Sebastian. Thank you, Sebastian. You were my first love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4099,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-4402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ponte-vedra","8":"tag-lifestyle","9":"tag-mims-cushing"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>This \u2018n That | Honor your pet: This one\u2019s for you, Sebastian - Florida NewsLine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ponte Vedra NewsLineBy Mims Cushing mail@floridanewsline.com May 3 through May 9 is National Pet Week \u2014 that time of the year when you should honor your pet whatever it may\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This \u2018n That | Honor your pet: This one\u2019s for you, Sebastian - Florida NewsLine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ponte Vedra NewsLineBy Mims Cushing mail@floridanewsline.com May 3 through May 9 is National Pet Week \u2014 that time of the year when you should honor your pet whatever it may\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Florida NewsLine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheFloridaNewsLine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-30T18:03:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-05-24T16:10:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/PVN-Mims-Cushing-1607.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"587\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"566\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@floridanewsline\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@floridanewsline\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/\",\"name\":\"This \u2018n That | Honor your pet: This one\u2019s for you, Sebastian - Florida NewsLine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/PVN-Mims-Cushing-1607.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-30T18:03:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-05-24T16:10:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#\/schema\/person\/f112e5505697e0e24f438c3562ad0fcc\"},\"description\":\"Ponte Vedra NewsLineBy Mims Cushing mail@floridanewsline.com May 3 through May 9 is National Pet Week \u2014 that time of the year when you should honor your pet whatever it may\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/PVN-Mims-Cushing-1607.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/PVN-Mims-Cushing-1607.jpg\",\"width\":587,\"height\":566},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"This \u2018n That | Honor your pet: This one\u2019s for you, Sebastian\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/\",\"name\":\"Florida NewsLine\",\"description\":\"The Newspapers Everybody Gets\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#\/schema\/person\/f112e5505697e0e24f438c3562ad0fcc\",\"name\":\"editor\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/author\/editor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"This \u2018n That | Honor your pet: This one\u2019s for you, Sebastian - Florida NewsLine","description":"Ponte Vedra NewsLineBy Mims Cushing mail@floridanewsline.com May 3 through May 9 is National Pet Week \u2014 that time of the year when you should honor your pet whatever it may","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"This \u2018n That | Honor your pet: This one\u2019s for you, Sebastian - Florida NewsLine","og_description":"Ponte Vedra NewsLineBy Mims Cushing mail@floridanewsline.com May 3 through May 9 is National Pet Week \u2014 that time of the year when you should honor your pet whatever it may","og_url":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/","og_site_name":"Florida NewsLine","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheFloridaNewsLine\/","article_published_time":"2018-04-30T18:03:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-05-24T16:10:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":587,"height":566,"url":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/PVN-Mims-Cushing-1607.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"editor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@floridanewsline","twitter_site":"@floridanewsline","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"editor","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/","url":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/","name":"This \u2018n That | Honor your pet: This one\u2019s for you, Sebastian - Florida NewsLine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/PVN-Mims-Cushing-1607.jpg","datePublished":"2018-04-30T18:03:25+00:00","dateModified":"2018-05-24T16:10:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#\/schema\/person\/f112e5505697e0e24f438c3562ad0fcc"},"description":"Ponte Vedra NewsLineBy Mims Cushing mail@floridanewsline.com May 3 through May 9 is National Pet Week \u2014 that time of the year when you should honor your pet whatever it may","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/PVN-Mims-Cushing-1607.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/PVN-Mims-Cushing-1607.jpg","width":587,"height":566},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/n-honor-pet-ones-sebastian\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"This \u2018n That | Honor your pet: This one\u2019s for you, Sebastian"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#website","url":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/","name":"Florida NewsLine","description":"The Newspapers Everybody Gets","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#\/schema\/person\/f112e5505697e0e24f438c3562ad0fcc","name":"editor","url":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/author\/editor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4402"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4500,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4402\/revisions\/4500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}