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August 26, 2005
Alleyway Marine Rescue
Yesterday, Susanne and I were running errands at lunchtime when we walked by a dumpster just off Beacon Street in Boston. The dumpster was full of items recently abandoned by someone who'd probably just moved, including an old mattress, a broken desk and some shattered poster frames. Atop this heap, though, we found an enormous plush toy -- a stuffed shark.
It had to have been six feet long - simply huge. I made some kind of land shark joke, but Susanne's face was overcome with sadness. Always an animist at heart, Susanne hates seeing any kind of object that's been abandoned by its owners. But toys and stuffed animals are the worst.
We continued to run our errands a few blocks down the street, then made our way back to the apartment. The lonely shark was still sitting atop the dumpster. Susanne insisted that we rescue it.
"You can carry it into the grocery store," I said, laughing.
"Go back to the apartment and get the car keys," she replied.
As it happened, the shark was abandoned just a few dozen yards from our parking space, five minute's from our apartment. Susanne suggested we put it in the car, so the next time we took the car to Cambridge, we could give the shark to Goodwill so they could give it a good home. While Susanne guarded the shark, I walked home, said hello to our groggy cats, grabbed the car keys, and backtracked to the car, where I found Susanne waiting, shark in hand.
We had some things in the back seat of the car, so we tried the trunk. At first we worried the shark was too big for the trunk. Indeed, it was a little cramped, but the cute carcharodon seemed perfectly cozy.
Sometime this weekend, we'll probably bring the shark to Goodwill. Unless there are any other takers, of course. -andy
Posted by acarvin at August 26, 2005 1:27 PM
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