Howard Edelman
What Matters to Me
This site is dedicated to the memory of Sam, Lucy, Mercedes and ChiChi Edelman
Sammy
(November 16, 1988 to November 2, 2004) was my best friend. I had a dream about Sam the night before I
first saw him. In the dream I found a black dog and we were
best friends. The next day I went to the SPCA and looked at dogs,
eventually seeing Sam (wasn't his name there), a two-year old black
lab mix who almost looked brown because he was a little dirty.
In the car I tried calling him by the name they had for him (Mokie)
and he didn't respond, so I started calling a few other names and at
"Sam" he turned to me. That stuck. We went to Dolores
Park that day and had a blast. He ran and jumped and played
and immediately came back to me when I called him. We were
best friends for life.
Lucy
(April 8, 1992 to June 5, 2007) was a little dog in a big dog's body. We also found her at the
SFSPCA because Sammy missed his best friend, Charlemagne, who had
moved back in with her owner after living with us for a couple of
years. She had so much energy, and that made her a little
"problem child" for some people to adopt. She found her forever home
with us and though she had her "issues" she was that sweet and
loving little crazy girl that we loved. Her favorite place was to
run down into the garage and if the car window was open, she would
jump into the car and go to sleep in the back. Needless to say,
there were several instances of, "where's Lucy?"
Mercedes
(December 2, 1994 to November 16, 2010) was my little angel. We found each other one day at the SF Animal
Care and Control. She was probably 6-9 months old and in this huge
concrete cage. We fell in love with each other from the very first
moment and forever from that time on. Almost 16 years of joy, she
wanted nothing but to be by my side or watching me. She had the
cutest underbite that scared some folks, but to me it was the smile
that truly was one-of-a-kind. She loved getting a bath,
comb-out and a hair cut and certainly knew how pretty she was. That
was her chance to parade around like the little "princess", which
became her nickname. Mercedes, I think about you every minute of
every day.
ChiChi
(December 7, 1997 to August 18, 2011) was purchased by a friend of
mine who wanted a Pomeranian. I went with my friend to the breeder
in Antioch and helped to pick ChiChi out. He was six weeks old at
the time. There were two in the litter, one creme colored male and
one cinnamon female. The male was feisty and my friend chose
him. On the way back to SF we discussed names and ChiChi sounded
right. Go figure - it was a conversation item. After a couple of
weeks ChiChi was delivered to my friend and two weeks later, he
decided he didn't really want to spend the time it took to take care
of a dog and offered him to me. ChiChi joined our pack and we had
13-1/2 years together. A few years ago he developed severe IBD, then
protein-losing nephropathy, gall bladder issues and finally aortic
thromboembolism. He was my little "booboo" and I sure miss him.
SF here we are...
In late 1989 I bought a home in San Francisco and found a new world, as many do when they get here. My new world included my new family, starting with Sammy, followed by Lucy, Mercedes, ChiChi and most recently Anaka. They are my four-legged babies.