Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

Tennis Balls (poem for Honey)

tennis ball’s ripped skin
like a tear in the soul

wishing her panting smile
given so freely

could be here right now
that I could toss

the tennis ball
and watch her leap

like Tommie Agee
and snare it from

its downward arc
and wait as she

trots back, tongue
flapping like her tail

the breeze rustling
autumn leaves….

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Honey update: The news isn’t good

The news is not good — Honey spent the night in Red Bank and needs surgery that may do nothing more than prolong the inevitable. I truly have no idea what to do. As Annie said, this is the hardest part of loving your pets.

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Update on Honey 2

This, by the way, is what a sick puppy looks like at 1:05 a.m. in Hillsborough, as she waits for transport.

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Update on the dog

The news could be better, though it also could be much worse. She is bleeding around her abdomin, but her lungs are clear and her vitals are good. Honey is calm — maybe calmer than me. We'll be heading to Tinton Falls soon, where she'll spend the night and get an ultrasound in the morning.

We have a long night ahead of us still.

———-
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A night at the emergency vet

I'm sitting in the waiting room at the emergency vet, waiting to find out if the fluid in her abdomen is blood and whether we're looking at a tumor. I'm not sure what to think about all of this, Honey being a part of the family, our child.

It's numbing and leaves me thinking about Benny and Amstel — the two dogs we had for years — how hard it was when they died.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I have to believe she's going to be fine. What else am I supposed to believe.

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