Roberta Gale

The following six-part podcast series: The Arby Chronicles—Love and Pink Juice is presented in its raw state—an unedited stream- of -consciousness rant recorded soon after I put my dog Arby to sleep in July of 2008. It is a selfish act. A narcissistic therapy session by a woman who loved animals from the second she slipped into this earth and was wrapped in a blanket embedded with dog hair. A koan that makes no attempt to explain why some are barely affected by the death of an animal, and others mourn as if their entire family died by random violence. If you’re in the former group, I don’t expect to convert you to the latter, nor change your mind if you think I’m anthropomorphizing to a clinically significant fault. I never had to put a dog to sleep before. It was the most devastating and the most loving thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. This isn’t Marley and Me revisited. It’s just Arby. And me. And love. And death. And learning stuff about life. And learning nothing. Journal entry 5/24/2008 "I’