Tagged: Beagle Sam

Model Dog

Ben Yakas at Gothamist wrote an amusing story suggesting that the MTA, the parent agency of the New York City Subway, adopt a mascot to improve relations between the agency and its straphanging public. Each of the twelve candidate mascots is illustrated by Matt Lubchansky.

Almost immediately, I was drawn to the dog in the blue IKEA bag, referred to with the tongue-twisting moniker “DAGBOG,” an obvious anagram of “Bag Dog.”

MTA rules dictate that any animal—including any dog—”must be enclosed in a container and carried in a manner which would not annoy other passengers.” Anyone who has lived in New York for a time has seen at least one instance of a person carrying a dog into a subway stations and onto trains by toting them in a blue IKEA bag.

I tried this once with Beagle Sam. It didn’t go well.

Last March, I was sitting Beagle Sam for the weekend, and we were headed to a party that was a thirty-minute walk away. Because it is still cold in March, I thought I would take Sam onto the subway to cut down our travel time—and outdoor exposure—to less than 10 minutes.

I put Sam in a blue IKEA bag, but once we boarded the train, Sam began to pant and tremble. She was clearly nervous about the movement of the train. This concerned me so much that we got off the train at the next station and walked the rest of the way to the party.

Alas, Sam was not cutout to be a “Bag Dog,” but perhaps she can at least model for the DAGBOG mascot.

Did I Mention that I Now Have a Cat?

Say Hello to Ninja.

Late last year, my roommate passed away after suffering a weekend-long heart attack that both he and I thought was just a bad stomach cramp. The experience was sad, painful, and shocking—and it left me with emotions that I don’t feel comfortable sharing here… at least now. However, I will say this here: if you experience any unusual pain and you feel that your body is “telling you something,” act on that intuition and visit a medical professional and have it checked. It could save your life and spare everyone in your life a lot of grief.


Michael’s cat Ninja and Beagle Sam on my unkempt bed. (Sorry, mom.)

When Michael passed away, he left behind a dog and a cat. His girlfriend who gifted him the dog some years ago—and who also happens to be one of my oldest friends—took custody of the dog. However, I do see Sam(antha) the Beagle pretty often, and I occasionally take care of the beagle. We sometimes go out on town and meet friends for dinner and drinks.

But finding a home for the cat was a bit more complex. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to stay in the apartment, and if I had to move, I thought it best to give the cat to someone with a stable living situation. I even considered asking my parents if they wanted to take her—but a cross country trip seemed like a lot for this house cat. At most, I wanted the minimize the cat’s moves and for her to move once and not again.

It turned out that I can stay in the apartment, and the cat and I have bonded over the last few months. In the last month, I’ve gone on two Costco runs specifically to buy cat food and cat litter. The latter was tough because I carried the forty-two pound bag in a backpack as I rode the bus home.

These are the things one does for his own cat.