By Maggie Thompson<\/strong><\/p>\n Gerald’s Talking Dog loves cherries. That’s all he ever talks about. It wasn\u2019t always this way, though. You see, before me, all Gerald\u2019s Talking Dog could say was that he hated cherries. In fact, for many people, it was this reason that Mr. Whiffle was less a phenomenon and more an annoying uncle around the Holidays. <\/p>\n When Gerald first brought Mr. Whiffle to my therapy office he thought cherries were the worst fruit in the world. He said, \u201cEating cherries is like getting neutered by a mailman.\u201d <\/p>\n He maligned the fruit for almost 30 minutes before I piped in, \u201cThis problem of yours is about more than cherries, Mr. Whiffle, isn\u2019t it?\u201d The dog looked at me, perplexed, and began to whimper. \u201cThere\u2019s something else there, under the skin. Tell me about your first time with the fruit.\u201d<\/p>\n He sat, looked into his soul and began, \u201cMy first cherry. Yes, I will always remember the first time. It was early August. The summer sun warmed my fur, I was walking Gerald through the fields in Beulah. Gerald unleashed me and I ran through an old cherry orchard, that\u2019s when\u2026\u201d He stopped for a moment. In the absence of words his brow tightened and a growl formed in the back of his throat.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s when I met her.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHer?\u201d Uh-oh, I knew this deep seeded cherry revulsion stemmed from something else. \u201cWho was she?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBirdie.\u201d He whined, \u201cShe was beautiful. She smelled like orange blossoms and fresh hops. She sang softy, and flew gracefully overhead with the prettiest blonde feathers, and man was she leggy.\u201d Mr. Whiffle began to pant as he reclaimed memories of Birdie. \u201cShe led me beneath a tree, plucked a cherry from the branch and fed me. The fruit was incredible, flavors bursting with each bite. The sweet-tart balance, even the color of the fruit. We ate until we were nearly sick, savoring every bite.\u201d Mr. Whiffle paused for a moment.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd where is Birdie now?\u201d I asked, thinking we might be able to get to the pit of the problem.<\/p>\n \u201cShe left me in the cold that late autumn and took with her the sun, took with her the sweetness of life. Everything has been bitter, dark and stormy ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA snow bird, a rain maker,\u201d I said. \u201cShe flew off to the farthest shore and took your love for cherries with her.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWell, Guvn\u2019r, here\u2019s what I think. You have a right to be sad, to feel heartbreak. But you can\u2019t live that way forever. It\u2019s time to make new memories and start over. Love is like cherries. Some are good in pies, some are made for jam, some can be eaten right off the branch, but some\u2026\u201d I said while uncapping a bottle made by a local brewery, \u201care good for beers.\u201d I handed it over to Mr. Whiffle. One sip was all it took.<\/p>\n \u201cCherry beer?\u201d he said, slurping the Belgian Rye Dubbel. \u201cI\u2019m in love.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gerald’s Talking Dog loves cherries. That’s all he ever talks about. It wasn\u2019t always this way, though. You see, before me, all Gerald\u2019s Talking Dog could say was that he hated cherries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[171],"tags":[188],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/geralds-talking-dog.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3TDCr-xR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2099"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2110,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099\/revisions\/2110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}