Ramblings from North Carolina

Pinehurst, North Carolina, is a pretty place, but I think the residents (dogs included) would probably say it is prettier when the US Open isn't happening. For this friendly town where dogs can sleep half a day or more, the golf crowd injects more than a little excitement, and this week it's the Women's U.S. Open.

I met a dog named Jack who doesn't yet have arthritis, but he will. He's probably 20 pounds overweight (140 in human terms), and his smile is not yet scarred by joint pain. Weight is a funny health risk. It's not easy to control, but it is controllable. However, dogs like Jack, in the face of a million problems they can't fix or even impact, won't deal with the one he can control--his weight. Anyway, you can lead a dog to the treadmill, but you can't make him generate enough electricity on it to turn on the control panel.

In other North Carolina news, dogs didn't seem upset that Jesse Helms lost his Foreign Relations committee chairmanship in the U.S. Senate, more an acceptance of the inevitable--the slow demise of Jesse.

John Edwards, a democratic senator, is the person people and dogs are talking about as North Carolina's next famous Senator, and Presidential candidate. He's ideologically miles away from Jesse, and while there is still a substantial base of Jesse supporters, the mood seems to be that it's time to move away from the reactionary right wing and toward a more enlightened perspective. It's not a century too soon for us arthritis sufferers, since Jesse's party isn't too kind to us when it comes to HMOs, school vouchers and research.

Playing golf with arthritis isn't impossible, and down here, where religion is pervasive, golf is religion. And the point is that if you talk to your doctor, you can get the medication you need to keep playing the sport you love. Doctors, who are no strangers to golf themselves, have a special sensitivity to us dogs with creaky joints who need to play 18 holes at least twice a week. And, with the average age somehow getting younger down here - from 58 to 54 - fewer of these so-called seniors are willing to put up with the pain their parents did.

I only saw two BMWs and two Mercedes while I was here. American brands are still strong as are the Japanese boxes. Pick-up trucks don't rule, which surprised me. I was looking forward to riding in the back and sticking my nose around the side of the cab to get a snoot full of wind. Humans don't understand why we stick our faces to the wind every chance we get, but it's simple. The wind rushing in our faces reminds us of when we were strong and young and could run fast. And speaking of running fast, Joe Namath, who didn't, and doesn't today, met with several hundred of us to talk about his arthritis, courtesy of Mobic, the arthritis drug by Boehringer-Ingelheim. He's still trim and full of energy, and he's the kind of person who can make dogs like Jack think twice before eating that second helping of biscuits and gravy.