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| Kitty |
A dog cannot clear its throat, exactly. What Kitty, our little 15-year-old Shichon, does each morning is appear at my bedside about 6 a.m. and emit a low grumbling sound. My cue to get up, get dressed, pop in earbuds and take her for a walk.
Center Avenue is empty at that hour. Tree-lined, nice houses. You'd think the pleasant vista of leafy suburban comfort, set to my favorite tunes, would put me in maximum good spirits.
A grim thought. And a rather improbable one — I mean, yes, people our age, mid-60s, do die abruptly. But the odds of both my wife and me expiring at the same moment are slim. How would that even happen? An awful coincidence, perhaps. She steps in front of some idiot on an electric scooter blasting down a Loop sidewalk at the same moment I stumble headlong down the stairs at home.
Morbid stuff. Where did that dog-dying-neglected thought even come from? I'd like to blame Gene Hackman — he and his wife died in February, unnoticed for over a week, and one of their dogs perished in a crate, horribly. But I was having this thought long before.
Looking for relief, I wondered if there might not be some internet gizmo that will sound the alarm if you don't check in.
Snug Safety is a cheerful, well-designed little app that sends a text every day at a set time with a big green button to tap. Fail to tap, and it alerts an emergency contact. Hit the button, and you're rewarded with an affirmative little quote.
You can pay — $199.99 for a year, $19.99 for a month — for access to a human dispatcher. But the basic service is free.
Every day, a big green button. Then the quote. First day:
"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men." — Herman Melville
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| If the headline rings a bell, yes, it is an homage to this classic National Lampoon cover. |
I've used Snug for several years. I live alone and I'm not getting any younger. It is reassuring, it works, and it's free. It mitigates a mortal fear - dying alone and moldering for days before you are found - I know people it happened to and it's not a path I want to follow. I quickly started ignoring the Snug quotes - they seemed second rate and now I know why. One day you will forget to click on Snug and scare the bejeebers out of a loved one - it's a Snug rite of passage.
ReplyDeleteIf you pay for the premium service do you get accurate quotes, or just more of the slapdash nobody-will-notice variety?
ReplyDeleteGood to know this is out there; I may buy one for myself at some stage of my life
ReplyDelete“Be not too tame neither. “ Shakespeare
ReplyDeleteMy wife would get so aggravated with me for musing upon mortality. You've been talking about dying for 10 years she would say. Well it WILL happen I would tell her.
ReplyDeleteIt's going to happen to EVERYONE she would retort. nothing special about you.
If my dog was 15 I'd be more concerned about it than myself.
We were fortunate to have dogs in our lives since childhood. Dogs are one of the purest friends on earth. After we lost our last best friend and endured the incredible pain of loss only dog lovers know, we elected to go without for now. Yes, travel and everyday getaways are easier without the responsibility of taking care of a pet, but we sorely miss the joy our dogs brought to us everyday!
ReplyDeleteCarbon monoxide poisoning make sure you change your batteries in your detector
ReplyDeleteHow about, "... Ah, youth is wasted on the wrong people!" Old man on his porch, It's A Wonderful Life.
ReplyDeleteAt first, I got really nervous that something had happened to that little cutie pie of a dog. But this might be good for my daughter and me to check out. Yrs ago, I had an uncle who lived alone and he told his daughter to call him every day to make sure he's alive. We thought that was so funny and kind of creepy. Now I'm alone, and I'm not always an enthusiastic texter, but if I don't get back to my daughter in a timely manner, there will be several texts from her: mom, are you ok? Mom? You get the idea. And, honestly, I do the same with her. She's not old, but she's living alone in the city. But in the end, I guess you could press this thing and pass on 5 minutes later. At least, though, it might be 24 hrs instead of days. I'm done now. This is taking me to a morbid place.
ReplyDeleteYes, the headline rang a bell, Mister S. and, yes, I clearly remember the classic National Lampoon cover, and seeing it in 1973. Caused quite a stir at the time. More than a stir...a big stink, actually. People were outraged and appalled. Which was the whole idea, I guess. That was around the same time as their "Nazi For Gracious Living"...featuring high-top Keds with swastikas, a Hitler lunchbox, and a Nazi ashtray that sported tiny flags and resembled the rally stadium in Nuremberg. Sick puppy humor, but still as funny as hell.
ReplyDeleteOlder couples do die together. Carbon monoxide, fires, car accidents. But maybe those are poor examples, because the pets would go, too. As we approach 80, I think about the fate of our cats, should the worst happen. We haven't adopted any kittens for many years, because they would outlive us. And senior cats are wonderful companions, too. Our first tortie, Mazel Tuff Cocktail, lived to the age of 20. Fifteen is getting on in years, for a smaller dog, and. Kitty reminds me very much of Barny, a Maltese I had decades ago.
The flawed quotes are probably compiled by some post-college peon who cuts corners, takes shortcuts, hates their job, and assumes that nobody, including their boss, will ever fact-check them. Until now. Find out who's in charge, Mister S, and give 'em hell. Or at least a heads-up. If the employees can't get the basic service right, what else might they screw up?
My mother's last residence was a high-rise for Jewish seniors, in Minnesota. She had to yank on a pull cord, once a day, to let them know she was still breathing. Otherwise, they would send somebody up to check on her. Sometimes, they woke her from her daily nap, much like the nurse who awakens a patient for a sleeping pill.. She did this for almost a decade, and made it to 92.
Neil, it's good of you to verify and correct their quotes, but why not submit your own?
ReplyDelete"Once we get into the practice of ignoring reality, the exact nature of the reality being ignored hardly matters." -- N. Steinberg
That would be a good start, though maybe not as inspirational as what they're looking for, but given that you've written an essay most every day going back decades, there must be some nuggets in there that you like, and which deserve a wider audience.
We have a Wordle texting group that also works as a daily check-in.
ReplyDeleteI did not know that about Gene Hackman's dog. That makes a very sad story even sadder.
There are nine people that I have to text every morning to let them know I’m “ALIVE”. It started with my sister who lives 150 miles from me because she and I both live alone and are up there in years. I mentioned it to one of my step kids that lives around an hour from me. She was the next one on the list. Then my next-door neighbor wanted to make sure I was OK. They have a key to my house. It continued from there. I have one friend in North Carolina, who is on the list, but she and I text back-and-forth all the time. We lived next-door to each other for over 35 years. The idea of that app makes sense for someone in my situation. If I do download it I can have my stepdaughter as my contact.
ReplyDelete