Ah yes, A man, a Stick and his dog.This was me and our dog "Pete" back in the mid 70's. We posed for this picture for a book about playing the Stick instrument. "Pete" used to tour with me. Not because I thought it was a great idea but because 'he' and my wife did!
Yes, I was against having pets (for the past 32 years - and now having 2 dogs and 3 cats living with us)... but because I figured when I'd start touring there would be no one to watch the pets.
I then started to tour to some great places and thought, "Hey I'll take the wife!" and she thought "Hey, I'll go pack Pete!"... "and soooo it began."
Mind you hotels don't allow pets, especially the very nice hotels that we were staying at. Well, I had to figure a way to sneak him in and of course it was left up to me.
I had a nice tour jacket at the time and putting Pete in it worked very well as we'd quickly go to the elevator, then on up to the room. In fact, over time it worked to well... Pete became so adept to this, the sight of the jacket would spring him into this routine. 1. I'd hold the jacket up and show Pete and 2. say, "Pete, we're gonna sneak!" He would look down and scrunch his little body into a crouching position.. (sooo cute). I'd put the jacket on top of him - scoop him up in it and carry him like a football - just 'holding my jacket under my arm, while wheeling my luggage with the other hand.
This all worked great but unbeknownst to me... he loved this so much and was SoooOooOo happy to sneak, his little tail would pop out the back end of the jacket behind me - wagging away in the wind. AND that's how we finally got caught.
PLAN B: "So whatta ya say when you get caught!?" I was traveling with the Ann-Margret show at the time when hotel security said, "You can't have dog's in this hotel" and so, thinkin' on my feet I said, "Oh I know but this is Ann-Margret's dog"... he said, "How come he doesn't have a diamond studded collar!? I said, "Because then people like you - would then 'know' it's Ann-Margret's dog and try and steal him." He said, "Oh okay, good point." From then on we didn't have to sneak him. BUT that left me with a problem - what if hotel security ran into Ann-Margret and said, "Oh I saw your dog, he's so cute!"
Plan C: I took "Pete" to rehearsal one day and showed him to Ann-Margret and said, "This is Pete! He's on tour." Now if security said anything about a dog, she'd just say something polite, kinda knowing what he was talking about and it would end there.
The Beauty of this tale, is later that year, Ann-Margret started touring with her little dog! And when we'd have after show parties in her suite (Large two floor - 8 bedroom suite atop Caesar's Palace) her little dog was there except her pooch had a darn fine collar. Ha! Come to think of it maybe security now thought.... "Oh I get it, the dog with the nice collar is the decoy dog and the scruffy lookin' Benji type dog is the 'real' pet.
At any rate, that's Pete, God rest your little dog soul, you were fun.
Don
