The Barney Kaplan and His Dog Story

1979

A True Story

Written 08/2016* 597 Words*

By Howard Yasgar

During the 1970’s, I was doing business with a parts supplier named Barney Kaplan.

Barney was the proprietor of Barney Kaplan Surplus, located in Detroit, Michigan.

When I first got to Barney’s warehouse, all his employees warned me to stay clear of his vicious watchdog, they said the dog’s name was “Red”.

I soon found out that they were just fooling around with me, because when I saw Red, he was usually lying down sleeping in Barney’s office.

Every so often I would see Red get up and make the rounds, he walked all around Barney’s warehouse, getting petted by everyone.

One day, I turned around and there was Red, he was just sitting there, with his tongue hanging out, he was watching me sort out some items I was buying.

Red sure didn’t appear dangerous to me, so I went over and I petted him, and he loved it, so we became buddies.

One of Barney’s sons told me that Red was an Australian Sheep Dog, but I think he was just a hundred- pound mutt that came to work every day with Barney and Barney’s wife Saralee.

Barney jokingly told me Red was a good watch dog, he said Red lay there on the floor and watched everyone.

Sometimes when I walked by Barneys office, I could hear Barney and his wife Saralee talking to Red.

No question, about it, they treated Red just like he was a member of the family.

At noon time, when the lunch truck arrived, Red always went right to the head of the line where he received a free sandwich from the lunch truck driver.

So, every day Red ate something off the lunch truck just like we all did.

Because I was going to be flying to Detroit often, Barney and Saralee suggested that the next time I came to Detroit, I should stay with them at their house which was in the town of Bloomfield.

They said I could come in to work with them in the morning.

It sounded good so I agreed to do it.

On my next trip to Detroit, after work, I went home with Barney and Saralee.

When I arrived at their home, I found they had a guest room already waiting for me, they even had a small plaque on the bedroom door with my name on it.

In the morning, after breakfast, we all clambered into Barney’s new Chrysler automobile to go to work.

Barney was in the driver’s seat, I sat in the passenger seat, and Saralee and Red both sat in the back seat.

Red was sitting directly behind me.

It appears that every morning, Barney and Saralee had a prearranged routine.

Barney would drive to a particular street corner in Detroit where there was another dog already waiting for them.

Barney would roll down his window and Red and the other dog would talk to each other; they had a good barking conversation lasting about five minutes.

While Red was barking, he would also be drooling on my shoulder.

Because his head was right on my left shoulder, his loud barking was directly into my left ear.

I tried to remain patient as my hearing faded in my left ear, and Red’s drool ran down my neck.

That morning Barney proceeded to stop at two more street corners in Detroit where there were dogs were

waiting to talk to Red.

On my next trip to Detroit, I went back to staying at a hotel.