Tribute to Mudslide

Tribute to Mudslide (for Charles Pratt) Mr. Loomis was already in Sag Harbor with his wife, the writer Hilary Mills, and their 8-year-old chocolate Lab, Mudslide. The New York Times Without pretense or vanity the name says that all three are unspeakably wonderful; it pushes back against the malevolent chances and grim certainties of the world. Does Mudslide hurtle drunkenly down the bank like an otter? If present at a disaster would he help find victims under the fallen hillsides? As a chosen name it proclaims: here is anarchic energy restrained, disciplined, domesticated. Mr. Loomis, newly retired, is 84, Ms. Mills' age not given. In naming they do not overlook love's daily melding of effort and gift, forgiveness and delight. As though knowing that mud is hard to wash off or vaccuum, Mudslide too must honor the customs of the house much of the time. May he do so gladly, and may it be so with his people, and with us.