He Could Have Been The Next Golden Boy

By Allen Bacon, The Daily Bosco

SPOILER ALERT!

The Games of the XXXI Olympiad in Rio are half over!

Next week you will be able to go back to watching real live sporting events as they happen on Free TV. Also take solace in this one fact: Dancing With The Stars is only about a month away. Oh, wait that's on a time delay to the west coast too.

But as I prepare to close my notebook of scribblings on this Olympiad, I jotted down a few notes I want to share with you.

Olympic Committee, if you are reading, please feel free to use my ideas. Because, unlike watching live Olympic coverage on television and online, they are free.

As I made my way across the Western United States one morning last week, I stopped off for a cup of coffee and a Breakfast Burrito at a place that had a television and actually found myself, for the first time in my life, watching an Equestrian Dressage Event.  OK I was looking to see how Anne  and Mitt Romney's horse was going to do this time or even if they had a horse entered.  That's all I know about the sport of Equestrian.  But I digress.

This was one of the most amazing events I had seen. These horses are incredible. They had these huge creatures dancing and prancing and being light on their feet, er hoofs.

They were dancing better than Adam Carola did when he was on Dancing With The Stars.

Then I thought. Wait a minute. Why do horses get to be in the Olympics representing their country? What about other members of the animal kingdom? Why are dogs, cats, possums, mice and rats excluded from the Olympics? This is discriminatory and wrong. This must end.

I know the wheels of change turn slow at the Olympics. Just think how long it took for them to get BMX into the games. Or, did you know that the last Olympiad in London was the very first Olympics that every country participating had a woman athlete?

Let me ask you something. What would you rather watch? Horses dancing and prancing around or Dog Frisbee?

I rest my case.

This may be my only chance at getting into the Olympics for me unless I take a shot at the Walk race (there was one guy that was older than me competing..or maybe he just looked that way...from all that walking) or rhythmic gymnastics. I am really good at throwing rainbow colored ribbons into the air and catching them.

Now, if only they put Dog Frisbee in the Olympics, I may have a legit shot.

My Yellow Labrador Chad (who passed away this past February) could have had a great shot at making the team. He could have been the next Golden Boy. 

Chad had an incredible back story.  I could just see the pre-recorded video on him. He was a rescue dog rescued by his owner (me) from living practically next door to the Disneyland Matterhorn and the fireworks show every night in Anaheim.

Think about being a dog in those circumstances. Dogs go crazy every Fourth of July. For Chad it was like it was the Fourth of July every night! Because of that fact, he was partially deaf which would make him the first technically disabled animal of the Olympics.

Then he had to overcome his fear. This is weird for being a Labrador Retriever.  He had a fear of water and a dislike of fetching and retrieving stuff.

But we got over that by being innovative and coming up with the first Frisbee Steak. Before, Chad wouldn't fetch anything. Throw a ball or a Frisbee out and most Labradors will instinctively run after it, track it down and bring it back to you. Not Chad.  He would give me a stare as if to say "Are you kidding me. You go get it yourself".

This is until I strapped some Carne Asada from La Bodega Market onto the Frisbee and threw it out there. Then you should have seen the transformation.

It was like Chad became a combination of Olga Korbutt, Cathy Rigby, and Tim Dagget rolled into one. It was a thing of beauty. It made me cry.

I also think of how much Chad would have been worth in advertising value after he won his gold medals. Think about it. Most of the dogs in television commercials are either Yellow Labs or Golden Retrievers.

Chad would have been a natural. He was a good looking blonde Southern California boy with a laid back personality. He could be on the Wheaties and/or Purina Dog Chow box with his Gold medals around his thick muscular neck ala Michael Phelps.

I thought Chad had probably one more shot at making the Olympics in Rio this year, then he could have hung up his frisbee.  But like every pet, his time on the planet was way too short (even though he lived a long, happy life for a Labrador. He was sixteen years old when he passed)

And that is why it is imperative that the Olympic Committee move fast on this. Because there could be another Chad out there waiting for his break and opportunity to represent his country.

I thank you for your support and your letter writing on this matter.