THE LEGEND OF DOLPHINNY

When I grew up in Redondo Beach we never saw dolphins. Then strangely enough, one day they started visiting our hometown. The timing was a strange coincidence that my family has come to call, “The Legend of Dolphinny.”

My brother Kurt had a beautiful German-shepherd. Her name was Daphne. Kurt loved her and took her everywhere he went. Daphne was crazy about Kurt. In fact she was kind of possessive. When Kurt would bring dates to the house, Daphne used to crawl up in his lap to make the young woman understand she was the lady in his life. This had a tendency to cramp his style.

Daphne

Daphne loved the beach and Kurt took her down just about every day. When Kurt went away to college, Daphne became Mom and Dad’s dog. If you are a dog person you know what I mean when I say, “Our family loved her so much.”

Then one very sad day it was time to say goodbye to Daphne. Daddy cried for weeks. Mom and Dad waited for Kurt to come home from college on a visit before they took her ashes and threw them into the ocean at Knob Hill beach. A few weeks after ceremony we began to see dolphins show up at Knob Hill beach on our walks by the ocean. Mom would say, “Look! Daphne is now Dolphinny and she has brought her friends!”

Some people might call it a coincidence. That’s OK. Einstein said “Coincidence is God being anonymous.”

Dolphins are beautiful friends. When I sing to them under the water I can usually hear them sing back.

Whenever I see dolphins dancing in the surf, I like to say, “Hello, Dolphinny. Thanks for bringing your friends by to say hi." It just makes me feel better.