A Star is Born

Children, including teenagers, are well known for having fantasies about being famous.  Sometimes the desire is driven by a talent they wish to have recognized, and others simply want fame for the sake of fame—having or doing nothing to achieve it.  For some, the drive for fame can usually point to a need to be accepted and loved.  As we get older, it usually fades as we find acceptance and love among friends, family, and partners. 

I, too, had dreams of fame when I was a child—definitely driven by a need to be loved and accepted.  My most memorable dream of fame was becoming a movie star and marrying Spock (Leonard Nimoy).  I would be made captain of the Starship Enterprise, and together with Spock, I would travel through a make-believe universe and be hailed as a hero for repeatedly saving planet Earth.     

A lucky few with talent will easily achieve fame.  However, it takes hard work for the rest—a lot of hard work, and even then, fame remains elusive.  For those with absolutely no talent or skills, fame never comes.  Unless you are a dog named Lemon.  I have posted on Lemon’s ability to easily manipulate.  However, I have not mentioned her climb to stardom in the year since we adopted her.  Lemon has no unique talent or specific set of skills, and she’s definitely not an AKC-certified purebred dog with a famous lineage.  She is simply a sweet dog with a very questionable origin. 

I’ve seen plenty of dogs out walking with their owners, as I’m sure many of you have.  Every now and then, you pass one that you think is particularly cute and make a comment to their owner or maybe stop and have a quick chat about their cuteness while giving the dog a little love.  Then you move on, right?  That happened with Lemon when we first adopted her.  We would stop and answer questions while she got a little love, and then we would move on.

Then it slowly started to change…

Earlier this summer, we were walking in town and passed a musician playing his accordion on a street corner.  Lemon paused for a few seconds to look at him.  As we started to move on, he started playing “The Doggie in the Window.” We backtracked and stood and watched him play; we were his only audience at the time.  Lemon sat with her head tilting side to side and her tail sweeping the street as it wagged back and forth.  She was definitely interested in the curious device the musician was moving to produce music. 

After he stopped playing, I noticed that others had joined us and were watching and commenting on Lemon’s fascination with the musician.  They were even taking photos of her!  The musician kindly agreed to let us take his photo with Lemon.  At the time, I thought that it was a once-in-a-lifetime event, and I wanted a photo to commemorate Lemon’s one and only day of fame. Ha!

I have since found myself walking Lemon down quieter streets because we are constantly stopped by total strangers—as if she were an A-list Hollywood star. “Ooohhh! Look, she is so cuuute!  What is her name?  How old is she?  What kind of dog is she?  She is so sweeeet!  Where did you get her?  You are sooo lucky!” All while people love on her, take photos, and even get on the ground to enjoy the full Lemon effect (licks and snorts).

Just yesterday, I was out very early with Lemon for her first potty break of the day.  She had on her swanky pink and plaid sweater and had her usual wiggle-walk going full blast when a car stopped to let us cross the street.  While we were crossing, the car’s window rolled down, and the man driving said, “Your dog is just beautiful.” I know what you are thinking; maybe he was flirting with me, right? Wrong. Let me tell you why I know it wasn’t about me.  I was wearing dark-blue wrinkled pajama bottoms that smacked of prison garb, hiking shoes, a knee-length black puff-coat, and a beanie cap—a proper hobo outfit (it’s the best I could do rolling out of bed and fumbling about in the coat closet all bleary-eyed). 

My brother, Joe, I’m confident, thought that I was exaggerating about Lemon’s popularity.  He couldn’t contain his amazement when he joined us at a local pub while we were visiting him this past summer.  He witnessed the squealing that occurred when people caught sight of Lemon. “Oh look, it’s a dog!” squealed a young woman when she caught sight of Lemon sitting on the bench beside me.  She was with two other friends, and the group came over to love on Lemon.  Later, as we attempted to leave, another small group stopped to pet Lemon and ask questions.  Joe looked at me and laughed while shaking his head. 

We recently discovered that Lemon has an anonymous fan base at a local winery.  It took us almost 20 minutes to get to the counter to order a glass of wine.  We hadn’t cleared the entry door before her gushing fans descended on us.  I had just started writing this post and took a photo of Lemon with her fans—proof of her stardom.  This happens everywhere we go. 

It’s funny how things turn out in life.  I guess you could say that my childhood fantasy did, in part, come true.  After all, I am traveling through space with a star, Lemon.