The Saga of Poco Uno
I arrived at work this morning to a pile of e-mail that included this little gem:
Dear Mr. Clarke,
I have a little Russian dwarf hamster that I put on your pet of the week (we let viewers upload photos of their pets) several weeks ago. Unfortunately whomever is responsible for putting pets on TV did not deem him cute enough. He watches Fox 8 News only. He watches Van (Denton, our chief meteorologist) when Van gives the weather (when he is sleeping and hears Van he wakes to see the forecast). His dream is to someday be your weather kid.
…
Maybe in the future you could mention him on TV and show his picture, he would greatly appreciate that. His name is The Little One, AKA Poco Uno (that’s Italian for little one). And no, I am not some kid, I am a 52 year old women, my husband is 53, and yes we have children and grandchildren.
Thank you in advance for myself and The Little One,
I responded:
Your hamster is very cute, but we need better pictures of him in order to put him on TV. The photos you sent are a little blurry and “blown out.” We get a lot of pictures of pets sent to us and can only choose the very best to air during the newscast.
I just spoke with our 5 p.m. newscast producer who said she’d be happy to put Poco Uno on TV if you could provide a better picture.
She replied:
Thank you very much for your prompt reply. The Little One, AKA Poco Uno sits perfectly still for his picture to be taken, I on the other hand don’t have the most steady hand, so most pictures are somewhat blurry. I have attached two from him opening his Christmas gifts. Hopefully they are not as blurry. He really does watch your channel and I will try in the future to get a picture of him watching to send for you to see.
Here is hoping he makes it on TV. Thanks!
I then e-mailed her back, explaining that Poco Uno would be on the news today at 5 p.m. She responded:
Thanks so Much! I am emailing everyone to watch and to check your web site (as not everyone who loves him lives in this state). I will be recording it to send to the people out of state. I woke him to tell him and he is so happy!
A half hour after Poco Uno’s picture aired, I got a note of thanks:
Thanks for putting the Little One, AKA Poco Uno on television. He was so thrilled when he saw himself! I took a picture of him in my husbands pocket watching and will send it to you when I upload. If anything you can say “Now I’ve seen everything”. I took him on an airplane and everyone at the airport said the same thing. Oh well, we get attached to our pets, what can I say.
Here’s Poco:
