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"Komatsuuuuuuuu!" he yelled. "Komatsu, please give me one more chance."

The doctor's voice called me back from the Japanese schoolyard. "So. The euthanasia," he said. "Are you giving it some thought?"

I like how David Sedaris uses humor in the piece, especially comparing the offsetting word "euthanasia" with the very casual phrase, "youth in Asia," to lighten up the story.

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When out with the dog, he carried a leash in one hand and a shovel in the other. "Just in case," he said.

"Just in case what? She dies of a heart attack and you need to bury her?" I didn't get it.

"No," he'd say. "It's for her, you know, her . . . business."

My father was retired, but the dog had business.

The use humor to convey the new dynamic

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Eulogies always tended to be brief, our motto being "Another day, another collar."

Eulogies are usually very long and something one tries to avoid, however here the significance of one (perhaps due to its rarity) is watered down.

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When she was six, MÃ¤dchen was killed by a car. Her food was still in the bowl when our father brought home an identical German shepherd, whom the same Cindy thoughtfully christened MÃ¤dchen Two. This tag-team progression was disconcerting, especially for the new dog, who was expected to possess both the knowledge and the personality of her predecessor

Throughout the collie and shepherd years, we had a succession of drowsy, secretive cats who seemed to share a unique bond with our mother. "It's because I open their cans," she said, though we all knew it ran deeper than that. What they had in common was their claws. That and a deep-seated need to destroy my father's golf bag

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Our mother, in turn, frequently paused beside my father's tattered, urine-stained golf bag and relived memories of her own.

The urine stained golf bag is a symbol of the once chaotic but happy time but is further accompanied now by the sadness of the passing of a pet.

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"She'd never expressed any great interest in the outdoors, so I scattered her remains on the carpet and then vacuumed them up"

It shows David Sedaris's personality and his thought process.

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"She'd never expressed any great interest in the outdoors, so I scattered her remains on the carpet and then vacuumed them up. The cat's death struck me as the end of an era. The end of my safe college life, the last of my thirty-inch waist, my faltering relationship with my first real boyfriend--I cried for it all and spent the next several months wondering why so few songs were written about cats."

While this is a funny moment in the piece, it also represents the emotional connection that Sedaris had with the cat and the importance of pets in our lives.

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"he'd never expressed any great interest in the outdoors, so I scattered her remains on the carpet and then vacuumed them up... I cried for it all and spent the next several months wondering why so few songs were written about cats."

David Sedaris uses a lot of humor in his pieces, and here he is able to describe the death of his cat in a funny way. Somehow, he contrasts the dark theme of death with his humorous tone. His personality comes through and really engages the audience.

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When it looked as though one of them had died, our mother placed the creature in a casserole dish and popped it into the oven, like the witch in "HÃ¤nsel and Gretel."

"Oh, keep your shirts on," she said. "It's only set on 200. I'm not baking anyone; this is just to keep him warm."

The heat revived the sick puppy and left us believing our mother was capable of resurrecting the dead.

The suspension that he is able to create throughout the memoir keeps the audience engaged. He creates this build up that results in a light hearted joke.

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"Eulogies always tended to be brief, our motto being "Another day, another collar.""

The quote shows the perspective of Sedaris' family on other living things that serve as pets. Although I think it's intended to be slightly funny, it is quite sad to see living animals be treated like replaceable household objects. Eulogies tend to be long and heartfelt and most people have very strong relationships with their pets, especially dogs and cats. However, for Sedaris and his family, the cats and dogs are simply household objects that can be easily replaced.

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"He treated her the way men in movies treat their ailing wives, the way he might have treated my mother had she allowed such naked displays of helplessness and affection."

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"When the vet injected the sodium pentobarbital, Neil fluttered her eyes, assumed a nap position, and died."

It was quite a sudden move from the speaker and the disturbing details of the euthanasia really shocks the reader. The abrupt change in tone really hits the listeners as we realise that the cat really is dead.

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"Hit me," my mother said on one of my return visits from Chicago. "No, wait, let me get my camera." She left the room and returned a few moments later. "Okay," she said. "Now hit me. Better yet, why don't you just pretend to hit me?"

I raised my hand and my mother cried out in pain. "Ow!" she yelled. "Somebody help me! This stranger is trying to hurt me, and I don't know why."

I caught an advancing blur moving in from the left, and the next thing I knew, I was down on the ground, the Great Dane ripping holes in the neck of my sweater. The camera flashed, and my mother roared, "God, I love that trick."

This passage struck me, because although it was very funny, and entertaining to read/listen to, it shows the personality of the mother perfectly. It shows how she is someone who loved her dog very much, maybe even more than her own children. It is also very well written, extending the short moment of the dog pouncing at her into an entire paragraph, describing the speed of the moment by describing the dog as a "blur".

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"Due to their size, Great Danes generally don't live very long. There are cheeses that last longer."

When the reader reads this sentence they are aware what is to come. The writer is probably hinting at the fact that Melina will soon die. Right after the sentence is followed with a joke. David Sedaris had an ability to balance out things are supposed to be serious and sad by adding in a witty comment or a joke. This makes it easier to read the writing and makes the writing more comfortable to get through.

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"We ought to get a dog," we'd sometimes say, completely forgetting that we already had one.

-The usage of irony makes the piece more comical

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With my mother gone, my father and Melina had each other all to themselves. Though she now occupied the side of the bed left vacant by her former mistress, the dog knew she could never pass as a viable replacement.

Sedaris masks the darkness of the situation using humour. He personifies the dog and describes the dog almost as if she was a human to add a comedic twist to a dark topic. Comedy is usually made up of an unexpected twist to the situation and in which no one would expect the dog to become the replacement.

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"That's my girl," my mother would say. "We don't like Mumbles, do we?"

"We?"
adding the authors own voice shows his personality and adds to the humor of the story as a whole

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"This tag-team progression was disconcerting, especially for the new dog, who was expected to possess both the knowledge and the personality of her predecessor."

I like the use of the metaphor "tag-team" which makes light of the deaths of his pets. I like how Sedaris personifies the dog and makes it seem like the dog understands that she is failing to meet expectations. I found this funny because it reminded me of how younger siblings can often be compared to older ones.

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Passing drivers slow to a stop and roll down their windows. "Hey," they yell. "Are you walking her, or is it the other way around?"

Their words remind him of a more gracious era, of milder forces straining against the well-worn leash.

This sad reaction to the drivers he once saw was symbolic of the sadness he feels without his wife. And how he still has all the things that on the surface made him happy except his wife.

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"Their words remind him of a more gracious era,  of milder forces straining on the leash.  He still gets the attention, but now, in response, he just lifts his shovel and continues on."

The whole memoir was about his parent's love for pets, but this passage in the end shows that ultimately, pets can never replace loved ones.

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"Eulogies always tended to be brief, our motto being, there's always more where they came from."
The author uses sadistic humor when talking about death. He is using humor, while relating to a bigger theme of death, childhood ideas, and replacement.

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"My father was retired, but the dog had business."

It's the sort of double-entendre in the word "business", plus how it might feel relatable to fellow dog owners, that makes this one phrase really funny. Sometimes it's as if the person's dog represents them better than they represent themself, and the only thing that others associate with the owner is their dog.