Golden Magic
April 26, 1999 – October 24, 2011
Golden Magic, first greyhound of Mimi and Bob Jones, died peacefully on Monday, October 24, 2011, after a brief illness. Magic was 12 1/2 years old.
If there is one word that could describe Magic’s life, that word would be “charmed.” Magic was born, trained, raced and retired with her littermates, a somewhat rare occurrence in the greyhound world. Her brief racing career could be summarized by the words most frequently used to describe her track performance: “Never a factor.” However, her kennel master saw something in her and her siblings and made sure that they were put in SEGA’s care. Bob always said, “Magic only won one race in her life, and that was the one to our house.”
Magic was an incurable counter-surfer, resistant to every known method of breaking the habit. One could sit at the kitchen counter and count on seeing a black nose sticking above the counter like a shark fin, seeking food that had been left just a little too close to the edge. Several memories spring to mind in this regard. Mimi lost a chicken salad sandwich to Magic when she turned her back on it in order to get a soda. Magic stole a New York strip from Bob when he stepped into the other room to answer his cell phone. She was a little stunned when he chased her down, wrestled the steak out of her mouth, and ate it while glaring at her. (She did get a couple of left over pieces, though.)
Perhaps her greatest theft was accomplished with Bravo (1997-2009), her adopted brother. One night, when we went to the pool for a swim, we took a rotisserie chicken from the refrigerator and placed it safely out of canine reach (so we thought) on the back of the stove. When we returned for dinner twenty minutes later, there was no chicken to be found. Mimi initiated a search and found aluminum foil in the living room. It was neatly unfolded with surgical precision and there was no sign of any chicken, bone, cartilage, or even a grease stain. Magic and Bravo looked somewhat sheepishly at us, but never did anything to acknowledge their crime.
Magic was lucky, too, very lucky. On one occasion, she stole a bacon-wrapped filet mignon, and devoured it before being discovered. She ate the steak, the bacon, and the 1 ½ inch long hard plastic screw that fixed the bacon around the steak. Bob got on the phone to the vet, “What do we do?” “There’s really not much to do,” the vet replied. “You’ll just have to pray that this screw doesn’t perforate her intestine.” For two days we watched Magic very carefully. Finally, on the third morning, along with her other business, out came the screw in pristine condition and Magic was none the worse for wear. If she had been a cat, she would have used up about four lives on that one.
It would be hard to find a dog as loyal as Magic. Every day for 10 years, she would race to the door whenever Bob came home from work, pushing the other dogs out of the way to claim her place as “Daddy’s favorite.” In fact, if Mimi needed to get Magic in the house, a task that could be anything but easy, all she had to do was holler, “Magic, Daddy’s home.” Magic would tear across the yard to get to the door.
Magic was with us for almost 10 years. We will always remember these years with joy because of what this playful, joyful, loving greyhound brought to our home. Maybe, we were the ones that were “charmed” after all.
The picture above was taken in the spring of 2011 by Cindy Frezon. It has always been our favorite picture of Magic because we believe that Cindy captured the essence of our wonderful dog in this image. It is used here with her gracious permission.
