Vincent Hase, a homeless ex-merchant marine known in Santa Rosa's Railroad Square/West End as Vinnie, isn't mourning alone his 17-year companion, Scrappy.
It's clear to some of the people who work in the area that Hase, 55, adored the blue heeler mix that he wheeled about in a carriage made from a grocery cart.
"I think she saved my life," he said, adding that having her to look after made him try to stay out of trouble and take better care of himself.
They were crossing Wilson Street when a car hit Scrappy and kept going. Hase said he's trying to hold it together.
"I don't like guys seeing me cry."
LINDSEY VONN'S DOC: It pleases Cardinal Newman High staffers and alumni to see Bill Sterett, Class of '78, back in worldwide headlines.
Dr. Sterett operated days ago on Lindsey Vonn, the most successful female skier in U.S. history. She'd badly injured a knee and lower leg in a crash in a world championship Super-G run in Austria.
Sterett, an orthopedic surgeon and head doc for the U.S. Women's Alpine Ski Team, first treated her when she broke a leg at 13.
His optimism that Vonn will fully recover from this latest fall has drawn almost as much press as the tale of her flying home from Austria in reputed boyfriend Tiger Woods' jet.
ALLYSON AHLSTROM has, at 17, been presented more honors than most of us will receive in a lifetime.
This latest one is a honey.
In recognition of her "Threads for Teens," the hip Windsor boutique that allows disadvantaged girls to shop for nice clothes for free, Prudential Financial has named Allyson one of California's two top teen volunteers.
As a recipient of the Spirit of Community Award, the Newman senior will receive $1,000, an engraved medallion and a trip, in May, to D.C.
There she'll meet the two honorees from each of the other states, and learn if she'll also
be named one of the 10 top teen volunteers in America.
HE RODE A YAK, dug dinosaur bones, reached into a goat an instant after it was humanely butchered and he shared meals with warm people living in a cold, vast, fascinating part of the world.
On Friday, Sebastopol's Jonathan Stuppin will be at the Occidental Center for the Arts with the film he shot on a journey through Mongolia.
Following the 7 p.m. screening of "A Long Song from Mongolia," Stuppin, the 30-year-old son of famed West County artist Jack Stuppin, will answer questions.
He said, "I think of Mongolia most every day."
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