On Sunday morning, February 1, 2009, Pushkin the beagle went to sleep in my arms for the last time. Three and a half weeks later, it was Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the Catholic Church’s Lent season. When you’re younger, Lent is usually about giving up something, such as giving up chocolate for forty days. As adults, though many still opt to give up something, others take a more proactive approach: perhaps making the effort to say one kind thing to their partner each day or to volunteer at a local soup kitchen. Lent, in this way, becomes a time of ritual and reflection culminating in the observance of Holy Week and Easter Sunday. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to commit to writing a letter each day to Pushkin. The collection begins on Ash Wednesday, February 25th, and the final letter was written on Easter Sunday, April 12th; all together, there are forty-seven letters.
To read the first letter from Letters to Pushkin, please click here.
Pushkin and I first met each other on Thanksgiving weekend in 1999. I’d already been to the animal shelter on 110th St. in New York City. I was eager to take on the responsibility of caring for a dog, but I needed a smaller dog that would be suitable for my Upper East Side apartment. At the time, the shelter didn‘t have any small dogs, so I left disappointed. However, a staff member suggested I contact Bideawee, a humane organization located in midtown. The next morning, I called their center on 38th St., not far from the United Nations. I asked if they had any small dogs, to which the person replied, “Well, we have a beagle...”
Sharon Discorfano, a graduate of Rice University, has an M.A. in Literature from Georgetown University and an M.A. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from New York University. She received her J.D. from the University of Arizona, where her personal focus was on animal-related legal issues and animal advocacy efforts. She currently resides in New York with her husband and Pushkin‘ brother, Galileo. For more information, please visit sharondiscorfano.com