Hey, CNFers, no collage art this week. I snapped a photo of Lachlan here, or as I affectionately call him, The Dog Who Ruined Our Lives. If you don’t think a dog is capable of ruining your life, think again!

In his defense, it wasn’t all his fault. It was also Hank’s fault. Actually, it was mainly Hank’s fault:

One thing, for sure, it was not our girl Kevin’s fault:

In the spring of 2023, Hank attacked Lachlan; Lachlan learned that that’s a thing and, days later, attacked Hank, and we’ve had to choreograph and separate the boys ever since. We suffer heart attacks when we hear claws click-clack on our dirty-ass floors when they shouldn’t because that means someone snuck out of a gate, which could lead to a bloodbath. It happened once in October 2023 (and we went to the emergency vet to see if Lachlan needed to get stitched up). It nearly happened again about two weeks ago when Lachlan snuck out of a barrier. As our trainer said, no matter how rigorous and careful you are, “Management will fail.”

The house is awash in baby gates. We fashioned two ex-pens together outside and threaded a soaker hose through them to create “water fence” to keep the boys apart. They hate water. It’s ingenious and oh, so refreshing.

Who knew Hank was a resource guarder? Who knew that Lachlan, under-socialized and anxious, would take a page out of Hank’s book and tear into Hank? Lachlan learned this behavior from Hank and now it’s pretty well imprinted on him, though we continually condition the reactivity out of Lachlan. It’s mainly fear-based and he’s still young. He’s getting better. He has gotten better, but there’s a long way to go still.

We tried like hell to re-home Lachlan because he’d be an amazing companion in a solo-dog situation. As a result, four harmonious souls turned into five stress balls, all because the no-kill shelter in town was going to kill Lachlan. What a world! Wait, isn’t Oregon a no-kill state? I thought so, too! Turns out there’s some euthanasia wiggle room.

So, no, the boys will never like each other and only under the condition of muzzles and constant surveillance can they be in the same orbit.

Why did I elect to share this? I have no clue. If Marc Maron is the cat guy whose life revolves around his cats, I guess you could say I’m the dog guy whose life revolves around the neuroses of these three shelter mutts. I’m saddled with the guilt that inviting Lachlan into our home has ruined and will ruin the last few years of Kevin and Hank’s lives, as they are both about 10 years old. They don’t deserve this life. Lach deserves better. Dammit, the humans deserve better, too.

But we’re making it work.

Remember, don’t be afraid to let it all hang out.

We’ve got Cole Heilborn, a documentary filmmaker and founder of Port Side Productions, a company focusing on outdoor storytelling. His latest film is Inches to Miles, a film made in collaboration with Athletic Brewing. I’m an ambassador! Use BRENDANO20 at checkout for a slick discount, friend! (I don’t get any dough, just points toward beer.)

Here’s the show notes, and you can listen and subscribe and download wherever you get your podcasts, like Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

Too Long; Didn’t Listen, Cole Heilborn: Let Them Tell the Story

Brendan: When it comes to interviewing and interview prep, what is the nature of your research? And how would you characterize your style of interviewing to evoke the best things on film?

Cole: What is my style? I just have a conversation. Ask questions. Make sure I shut up.

Brendan: Shutting up is a big one. I can't advocate for that enough. Oftentimes, I let silence do some work. As uncomfortable as that is — you can always edit that stuff out. But you give them enough silence, they'll start to fill it. And that's usually the best stuff.

Cole: 100%, I couldn't agree more. I think going into this, we kind of knew all the beats we needed to hit. So I had a list for each of the characters of here's a story we need to touch on. The first step of the interview was, “Okay, let's go through the past 10 years of your life, let's talk about it. Let's make sure we cover these interesting moments. Let's really get into, like, how did these moments feel? What did they look like? Paint us a picture.” A lot of those types of questions.

And then we started to talk more generally we're like, “Okay, let's talk about your childhood. Let's talk about sports and athletics. What did that mean to you growing up?” And we went through that category. So I broke it up into a bunch of categories. And so if you look at my prep documents, it's all broken up into category, and then a bunch of questions off of that.

I love to just listen and hear what they're saying. You know, you can do all the prep, you can come up with all the greatest questions, but I feel like at the end of the day, you just have to listen and see what they say and pull on those threads as they bring something up because you never know where that takes you. And so that's the biggest thing is I just try to listen, be quiet. And just let them let them tell the story.

Coda

Gonna plant a wee seed here: We are less than a year from publication of my Steve Prefontaine biography. Title TK. (Likely going to be The Front Runner or The Last Amateur) Pre-orders are the name of the game, so I just want you thinking about it. It’s not available for pre-order just yet. Again, just getting you thinking about it. Dead in the water without pre-orders, friend.

Also, for face-to-face time and to support the podcast, you can window shop at patreon.com/cnfpod.

And if you leave a review on Apple Podcasts, take a screenshot, send it to [email protected] and I’ll coach up a piece of your writing of up to 2,000 words.

Rage,

Brendan