Someplace in Key West’s Previous City, there’s an aged man cursing the soul of Calico Jack.
I don’t imply Calico Jack Rackham, the notorious Caribbean pirate who was hanged in Jamaica in 1720. No, this Calico Jack was a barely insane canine who shared the pirate’s title, and disrupted a secret playing ring in 1980 with one larcenous flick of his tongue.
Jack was only a pet when I discovered him on the Key West shelter. He had a black physique, with brownish legs and lengthy hound ears. Foolishly imagining that he would grow to be a storybook companion like Lassie, I adopted him and introduced him to my place on Margaret Avenue.
In these days Key Westers not often locked their doorways, and generally didn’t even shut them. Individuals wandered out and in of every others’ houses as if the Previous City district — with its unrestored Victorian homes and rampantly blooming flowers — was an enormous commune.
In a way, it was. Impromptu porch events have been widespread, stuffed with laughter and tall tales and music, with low cost wine and joints shared with whoever stopped by. Cash was scarce however fish have been plentiful, and we all the time cooked sufficient for the chums who dropped in.
It was the perfect environment for elevating a pet, I figured, with loads of individuals round who may assist me mildew Calico Jack into an ideal island canine — one who adopted me on random adventures, by no means needing a leash or something greater than a mild command.
In spite of everything, different canines behaved that method.
Pals took their canine companions to Canine Seashore, the pocket-sized stretch of sand subsequent to the beloved restaurant Louie’s Yard, and watched their pooches romp within the water whereas they sipped cocktails at Louie’s After Deck bar.
Pals pedaled their bikes alongside Key West’s slender lanes with their canines using within the baskets, grinning furry-faced grins. They have been facetiously dubbed “basket hounds,” a breed indigenous to the island.
Calico Jack, nevertheless, was one other breed altogether. He developed an air of madcap lunacy that worsened as he obtained older. Regardless of coaching makes an attempt, he had no manners and no respect for private area. And he was a thief, stealing meals and small objects as he roamed the neighborhood.
When he was nearly a 12 months outdated, my wayward pup dedicated the crime that earned him an enduring place in island lore.
The Margaret Avenue space was a beautiful, eclectic mixture of outdated houses and low-key companies. Down the block stood Molina’s Bakery, the place the odor of contemporary Cuban bread perfumed the air.
Round a close-by nook was a shabby but common Cuban restaurant. Unbeknownst to me, its again room housed a playing den the place males gathered for high-stakes video games of dominoes.
One fateful day, maybe in search of a tasty handout, Calico Jack poked his nostril inside.
I used to be oblivious, enjoyable on my shady porch. That’s, till Jack got here pelting down Margaret Avenue carrying a domino in his mouth — chased by a stocky man who was shaking his fist and hollering, “Perrito sin verguenza! Pet with out disgrace!”
It was clearly a scenario to keep away from. With no sound, I slipped into the home.
Weeks afterward, although I by no means understood the domino recreation’s guidelines, it emerged that Jack’s theft had value his pursuer a considerable sum. That was a disgrace, however there was nothing I may do.
Now, a long time later, the Cuban restaurant is lengthy gone, as is Jack. I moved to a different Previous City spot a few years in the past.
However the Margaret Avenue neighborhood remains to be pretty, showing untouched by the passage of time. Biking previous my former house final month, I may nearly hear — from a kind of wood-frame homes surrounded by flowers — an outdated man’s voice, nonetheless cursing “the pet with out disgrace.”