January 18, 2004
Our Manhattan born, renegade dog, Buddy Boze Bell has Valley Fever. When we were in Spain, our neighbors found him in a ditch, lethargic and weak. They picked him up and drove him to their vet ($490) and then pampered him with home cooked meals and his own bed in their house! Needless to say, when we got home and relegated him back to his rug on the patio, he voted with his paws and daily trotted back down to the neighbors for the Biltmore accommodations.

Valley Fever is a spore driven virus that lives in the dust of the desert and it is believed that virtually everyone who lives here, humans and dogs, has contracted it. Most think they have a cold or the flu, etc. (remember: you are getting medical information from a cartoonist). Still, we are stuck feeding Buddy a daily pill-rich food regimen and he has turned into a pampered twit. In spite of this, or maybe because of it, Kathy thinks he is the most intelligent, wonderful being on the planet (he is curled up in his own chair behind me in the studio even as I type this).

Speaking of Tip Top Hotel accommodations, Deena met with Steve S. at the Biltmore Resort on Friday and he gave her the lowdown on the biz (she has gotten a job with a certain well-known chain). We met her for Mexican food at El Conquistador yesterday afternoon ($38 cash, includes two dishes of carne asado tacos, two soups, posole and carne con juego, and two diet cokes). Afterwards, Deena drove me down to REI and I got a $100 gift certificate for our neighbor who set his hunting boots on the back porch and Buddy stole one and ate the tongue out of it. I was appalled at the current prices for new boots ($85-$125 for entry level footwear!) and tried to rationalize that Buddy only ate one boot, maybe I could just replace one shoe, but Deena shamed me into buying a pair, or at least most of a pair.

“I’m good enough, and dog-gone it, people like me!”
—Stuart Smalley (AKA Al Franken)