What Does it Take to Cure Parkinson's

My wife and I were out on our evening walk (move to live). About half way home we noticed a small dog up ahead running and barking at people in the school parking lot. You could tell he was all bark and no bite. Across the street I also noticed a young man with a blanket in his hand. The dog must have escaped the house and I guess the plan was to throw the blanket on the dog and capture it. I thought to myself.....really, that's your plan. It seemed futile and ill conceived, but what the heck, I was on board if it actually worked. It would give me something to write about in this blog.


Well, let me tell you, this plan had all the success of the coyote strapping a rocket on his back and catching the roadrunner. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure the blanket had the word ACME on it. He was a little dog and he was fast like the kid in gym class who out ran everyone and looked back to see how far ahead he was. The problem was he started running into the street, not good. What if a car hit him? I could not live with that so my wife and I were in the hunt.

The young man said his dog's name was Neeko and I thought, "You should name him Nike the way he was running circles around us." He handed us a treat and asked us to give it to Neeko while he threw the blanket on the dog. I tried to feign hopeful with the new element of the dog treat, but knew better. It was all we had though. Surprise! Total failure and with a snack in him he had extra fuel. Off he went, running down to the corner. When the young man's sister pulled up in her car to lend assistance, I thought dogs love car rides. Great, this should work. Another bad idea. You would think we worked for BP the way our plans to solve this problem were going. Neeko was down the main drag and off the side streets into more traffic. I was starting to worry as cars had to break to avoid hitting him. My wife had her jacket off and threw it at him. I'm not sure what this was going to do. Maybe his little legs were going to go in the sleeves, the hood flip on his head, and then Bam! we'd have him.

Now at this point you must be wondering what does this have to do with PD or any problem. I'm getting there.

I wish I had a video camera to see my wife trying to run after that dog with her hoody, the kid with his blanket, me with PD, and the sister with the pursuit vehicle. Too funny! The four of us can't grab him so what do we need, more people. A guy walking his dog has joined the great hunt to capture the elusive Neeko. I remember the guy saying, "You know you are never going to get him with that blanket." Thank you, Mister Obvious. We are up to six people and apparently not faster or smarter than a 5 lbs. dog. Down the street we all go with that little dog kicking our....You know what, we need more help. We saw a group of small children just ahead of us playing with their new puppy. Okay, that's ten of us, score - humans 0, Neeko 10. The kids had the only thing that Neeko the dog was interested in, the puppy. We had the bait and now we just needed a trap. As always, there is a fly in the ointment. One of the kids in the group started to throw things at Neeko and chase him into the street, all the while laughing his head off. I'm not saying I believe in demonic possession, but I swear his head spun all the way around during his tirade. Fortunately, one of the kids stopped him. I believe he will grow up to be a Jesuit priest the way he stopped that demon child.

We were back in business. I noticed that the kids had a fenced in yard. Immediately I had a plan. Put the puppy in the yard, keep Captain Chaos under control, and block the holes in the fence. Neeko fell for it. He went into the yard after the puppy, we closed the gate, and the owner walked into the yard. Neeko was beat. He laid down and showed his belly. We had him safe and sound. Neeko's owner told us that Neeko was a rescue dog. He was a pure bred dog that had a flaw because he was born with an extra toe on one paw, not saleable, just expendable, off to the pound.

What did I take from all this? On the road of life when you have problems, it takes lots of people to solve them and you never know how or why people come to your aid, but they do. With all their help and a good plan, you can reach a goal no matter how elusive it may seem. There is always someone with an agenda who tries to detour the group's effort, like that little kid, but we must stay the course. It will take the team working together to beat PD. With the help of others who join our cause along the way, it will happen. Stay positive, do what you can to help like play in a charity golf tournament (shameless plug) like mine in the fall. Keep moving Parky Warriors!

I'm Pat Younts and I move to live.