We’ve had 6 dogs in our family over the years, and each with totally distinct personalities and idiosyncrasies.  But none as distinct perhaps as Cosmo.  Our poor, sweet Mo was truly our  ’special child’  in the mix!   We used to say the ‘mo’ in Cosmo stood for moron… just joking, but truly he was goofy!

As with children, early childhood (or puppyhood)  development is key to a smart and healthy adult.  And, Cosmo’s early days were pretty grim.  We adopted him when he was 5 mo. old from a family that had good intentions but couldn’t properly care for him.  They were ultimately too busy to give him much time and attention, so he spent, on average, 18 hrs. a day in a crate!

Needless to say, when he arrived at Chez Hammond he knew he’d hit the lottery!  And he gave us so much laughter and joy!  Duffy, our 5 yr. old cockapoo at the time, was in need of a buddy and he went with me to check out this little pup that needed a home.  They hit it off right away!  I think  Duffy who was always the ’smart one’  figured Cosmo needed someone to look out for him.  He was right!

His name wasn’t Cosmo when we got him, it was Casey which was way to sedate for this clown!  So after much thought and observation we came up with Cosmo because of Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld.  Kramer didn’t fit, but Cosmo was perfect.  He would run and slide into the room just like Kramer, with the hair moving and a goofy grin on his face!  I will always smile when I remember that goofy grin!

He was also a pig, with a capital P!  Probably because he’d been hungry a lot, waiting for someone to feed him.  He truly lived to eat!  Over the years we’ve had entire cheese trays devoured at the blink of an eye, if you didn’t put it out of his reach!  He loved goat cheese the best!  At least he was somewhat discriminating.  The funniest story about Mo and his food obsession happened at the beach.  We would take the dogs to the beach and as soon as you’d take the leashes off, Duffy would charge into the ocean or chase after the sea gulls.  Cosmo would just scratch in the sand for clams or whatever tasty morsel he could find and totally avoid getting wet.

One day when we got to the beach and unclipped the leashes Cosmo took off like a shot!  I was chasing after him and screaming his name… and the whole time wondering what in the world got into him?!  He never ran off!  Then, as suddenly as he took off he put on the brakes!  When I caught up with him he was eating bread someone had left for the gulls!  This crazy dog smelled bread 4 blocks away!  Now that’s a talent!

You just have to smile when you look at this gallery of Cosmo pictures!   I painted his portrait with sunglasses on, because his eyes were sensitive to the sun, and he actually liked wearing them!

We lost him too soon, due to a multitude of health issues, including Cushing’s disease, but he lives on forever in our collective memories!  RIP my sweet Mo!!

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