The Moth - Pet Stars: Scott Sanders and Noriko Rosted

Episode Date: April 28, 2023

In honor of National Adopt a Shelter Pet day on April 30th, we’re sharing two Moth stories all about the special role pets play in our lives. This episode is hosted by the Moth’s Social Media Coordinator, Estee Daveed. Storytellers: Scott Sanders deals with jealousy as his dog becomes a more successful actor than he is. Noriko Rosted must find a pet sitter for her beloved cat before her trip to Italy.

Attention Houston! You have listened to our podcast and our radio hour, but did you know the Moth has live storytelling events at Wearhouse Live? The Moth has opened Mike's storytelling competitions called Story Slams that are open to anyone with a five-minute story to share on the night's theme. Upcoming themes include love hurts, stakes, clean, and pride. GoodLamoth.org forward slashon to experience a live show near you. That's themoth.org-forod-slash-huston. Welcome to The Moth Podcast. I'm Eskie Davide, the Moth Social Media Coordinator and your host for this episode. Today we're going to be sharing stories about the magic of pets. And I know a little something about the links we'll go to for our furry friends.

In January 2022, I decided to send out invites to my friends and family to my dog, Mookie's Zoom Bark Mitzvah, a Jewish celebration of his coming of age. Now, Mookie wasn't 13 years old, but he had matured exponentially during the pandemic. From the moment Mookie entered our family, I knew I was going to throw him a bark mitzvah. The question was when, and what would it look like? And I mean, what even is a bark mitzvah? But the invites were out, and I needed to just start building something. I chose a theme, put together an original song and a side show, organized speakers, wrote out a whole ceremony, and even consulted with my rabbi.

On the eve of the barc mitzvah, I had a minor meltdown because I was worried that I was forcing everybody to come to a frivolous party for a 12-pound shitsu poodle. I knew what I was doing was silly, but it was also my way of sharing my profound gratitude for Mookie, and all of his support throughout quarantine. And it was about creating a space for the people in my life to share stories about how their pets had impacted them too. Now is abargments for kosher? I still don't know.

What I do know is that I felt connected to my spirituality, my community, and most importantly, Mookie, on that momentous day. So in honor of National Adopted Shelter Pet Day on April 30th, we'll be sharing two stories all about how pets bring joy to our lives. First up is Scott Sanders, who told this at San Francisco Stories slam in 2013, where the theme of the night was envy. Here's Scott right at the mall. Okay, my tale of envy begins and ends in the Baby Doll Lounge, which was a

topless bar in Tribeca in New York City around 1988 before people knew where and what Tribeca was. I had a dog, I lived there a lot, a couple blocks away, and I walked the dog off the leash and the dog always ran into Baby Dog Lounge. The dancers in the Baby Dog Lounge weren't your typical topless dancers, they were all conceptual artists and painters and CBGB musicians. So the mode, like the ambiance, and there was the opposite of what you imagine, a topless part, be like. But I would hang out there with the dog,

we would get snacks and talk to the dancers. And on this day in 1988, I left the bar, and immediately a woman rushed up to us and said, oh my God, I love that dog. See, the thing was, I was an actor. I was on soaps. I did off-board, we had a bunch of bad films. And the thing about being an actor is, you know, it's like trying to play third base

to the Ankeys. So on a whim, I took headshots of my dog and I sent it to the top animal agent. And immediately, my dog got work. First it was with print jobs with for Ralston Perina and then these movies with Mr. T. And then he became, he became the official Ralston Perina job campaign dog, but this is nothing, this is just the beginning.

I go back to the loft and I get on my couch, and we usually like share to Samaritsch together, Jake. What a beautiful golden retriever. Really beautiful when the lights turn on, he throws Marilyn Monroe. But not really that smart. I turn on the TV, and it's a commercial of these beautiful women running in a meadow with long hair,

sort of slow motion in perfect pre-dust crisp light. My dog is running along with them and there's a voice over in the commercial that says it's a Cartier commercial. My dog went from Ross and Prerna to being one of the, uh, involved in one of the most luxurious brands. And the commercial theme was no diamonds, no love, KNOW, no diamonds, no love. Anyway, um, Jake's agent was calling all the time. My agent rarely called. I finally got a gig where I had to do a low budget commercial

for cable TV. It was for drum and dog chow. I had to go to like a funky loft on West 26th Street. I had to wear a Dalmatian costume with a battery operator tail and have this guy in an outlet mall golf shirt with stains on it, yelling at me that I'm not saying the tag way through it. I'm having major envy. I mean, I like the money that I'm getting from my dog doing all this stuff, but I was a serious actor. You know, so I take a cab right home,

and I pass a bus that has another ad, another display of no diamonds, no love, with Jake the Golden Retriever. I get home because I was beginning to unravel. I was having some major issues with this. And I immediately slice up these, I take a knife and I tear up these pillows, huge pillows, and I shake them like crazy.

Feathers go everywhere, it's quite lovely. And then I sit down against the wall and I share a sandwich with Jake. My girlfriend comes home and I can't believe what Jake did. She says, I need therapy. You have no idea how it ramped up. The next step was New York Posted, an article, Actors' Door Turns Ham, gets all the bows.

Then we were on the David Letterman show, not for stupid petrics, but to introduce an emerging dog star. My dog is so associated with wealth and luxury that Donald Trump relative hires my dog to be a ring bearer and one of his relatives weddings. And you have to understand there's a little gizmo that they put on his tooth. And there's a Cartier box and it goes down the aisle with a ring.

The toper was Cartier bought out a rival brand. They had the opportunity to ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange, and my dog was chosen to ring the fucking bell at the epicenter of global power, and you have to imagine my dog shaking his head like he has a wild carcass in his mouth, and I am looking at him, and this whole experience, I am unraveling. So what I decide to do,

I don't like the way that Cartier is marketing loves and in my twisted frame of mind I decide to sabotage the campaign. I print up these dogtails like t-shirts. I send them out to about several of the key decision makers, trend sellers in New York. I, from Pearl Paint, I get paints, and I get, I make a stencil, and over every ad I see for Cartier, where it says no diamonds, no love, I spray paint dog tails lie. I send a dietri-

to Terry Gross on fresh air. I disguised my voice like um, who's that guy? Steven Hawking, who is Steven Hawking? And the top was, it's beginning and the Cartier people are wondering what's going on, get in investigate as I'm getting more paranoid. But the car to the people invite us to their ad agency because they're redoing the campaign. Jake isn't allowed to shit in public. They change his name from Jake to a Beauregard. I feigned sickness.

I go, I say I have to leave. I go back to the loft with Garfin. We go to the house that Jake bought for us in the caskills. And Jake gets bit by a raccoon. And he gets an antarovic infection in three days later. He dies. But he had a really good life. and we had a really good memorial service at the Baby Doll Lounge, and my son is named Jake.

Thank you. That was Scott Sanders. Scott is an ex-actor, ex-New Yorker who moved west 20 years ago. He is still wrestling with cross-cultural challenges. He never considers not J-walking. Scott has told stories in multiple Moth Grand Slam and Moth Main Stage events. His website is grosslynormallife.com. If you'd like to see pictures of Scott's dog and Mookie's bark mitzvah, then head to our

website, the Moth.org slash extras. In another life, I like to think that I would have been a really great agent to dog actors. Up next is a story from Noreco Rostet. She told this at a New York City community showcase in 2019, where the theme of the night was, across the divide. Here's Noreko, live at the mall. We had a big issue, which is our cat, Spencer. He's a two-year-old male tabi cat. We adapted him from a local animal shelter

when he was a kitten. And we love him. He's like our child. So we're like, what are we gonna do with Spencer? We just relocated from Japan to New York. We don't have any family, you know, friends here yet. So, and the only person we could think of was 15 year old American boy who's living the same apartment building. We see him here and there doing some errands for the residents to make small money.

But he was, he's a little bit cocky, typical teenage boy. Looks like only thinking about gods and football. And his hair is loose, his clothes is loose, his arse is loose. And we are like, oh, forget about it. We cannot be where we are supposed to sit. We have to find this and responsible adult. And when a person crossed my mind, She's Japanese, like me. I met her through a library program and I remember she mentioned she loves cat and she used to be a vet.

And she always looking for an volunteer opportunity at animal shelter to take care of cats. So one day, I walked up to her at the library, saying it was really awkward moment. But look, I know this is a huge favor, and definitely use can say no. But would you be interested in taking care of Spencer while I'm away? She said immediately, I'd love to, this is going to be great.

I was like, what a generous person. And so I went to her apartment in Upper West to drop off Spencer. And when I went to the apartment, the four walls were pictures and paintings of cats all over. And on the shelves were quite a variety of funny cat figures. It was a little bit too much but clearly she loves cats which is good. And so I explained about food which is only dry food two times a day and the amount is one cup per meal, no snack. And she said, oh, that's quite simple and easy, no problem.

And I sent her a fruit to each of you with my husband. Day one, I got texted from her saying, spend said, doing great. He ate fruit and he did both things in his toilet and everything's great. No worries. Please enjoy your vacation. She even attached a picture of Spencer. His line on the couch and he looked very comfortable. And they too, I got another text. I was like, wow, is she sending me a daily report of Spencer? I didn't even ask her, but I know this is so typical Japanese.

We are very detailed and hospitable people. I'm very happy that I asked her. And I opened a text. She said, Spencer is a little bit strange. He didn't eat food. He's not coming out from under the bed. He's not moving.

I didn't know what's going on. So I was trying to figure out it has never happened before. But do you have any idea what the cause might be? And she deprived. Actually, he ate a tiny part of my socks. So to help digestion, I gave him kiseer oil. What is kiseer oil?

And she continued father. By the way, the food I want that you give him, Spencer, is too little. So I gave him wet food that I had at home. I was like, what is she doing there? We agreed with the instructions. So I said in a bright way, please don't give him anything but what he usually eats.

And she responded she responded immediately, I know what Kat's needs. I am used to be a vet. I have more experience than you. I was, what is wrong with her? I was, what is wrong with her? I was, what is wrong with her? And I exchanged many texts on her tone

with really escalating every text. And she was really attacking me. But it's like hostage negotiation. You still have to maintain certain level of cooperation or willingness. But at one point, it went out of control and I was really, really concerned about Spencer's safety. But I didn't know what to do. I mean Italy spence is in danger. My heart was pumping first. I was crying. I was so desperate that I had to reach out to the

15-year-old American boy. And I explained the long story and said, sorry, I know this is a lot to ask, but is there any chance that you could retrieve Spencer? And I knew he's still at school, so I waited. And an hour later, my phone beeped. It was from him. I opened the text very nervously. He said, sure, just give me her address. I said, really? I said, you have no idea how much it means to me. You are my hero. OK, so Adres is this and this. He texted me back with emoji, a guy saluting. Got it.

And he did it. He did. He went up to Upper West and Richard Reaves, professor from the lady, and brought him back to Brooklyn and stayed with him. I was a little bit upset, but I was a little upset. I was a little upset. I was a little upset. I was a little upset. I was a little upset. I was a little upset.

I was a little upset. I was a little upset. I was a little upset. I was a little upset. I was a little upset. I was a little upset. That was Mariko Roasted. Nurego was born and raised in Japan, but was always curious about the world at large. Moving to New York was a bit of a coincidence, but she enjoyed discovering the liberated

nature of New York, and is still carrying the many New Yorker inside her even now living in Germany. She works in the compliance field and lives with her Danish husband and their rescue cat. We aired this story a few years ago and touched a lot of people close to her. Norego sent us a reflection on just that. Some years ago, the month first day at my story, when I came into my office the next day, I found out that my boss had heard my story.

He's a New York lawyer, very serious, no-nonsense guy. Of all people, I would not expect him to be a more fan. I've since left the company and New York and moved to Germany, very recently I got to know about his two RE passing. When I heard the news, somehow the first thing came to my mind when I thought about him was the most connection that we shared, and our little funny encounter that day in his office. I guess you never know who the story reaches and what memory can create.

That's all for this episode. And remember, if you wanna see some photos of the pets we've mentioned, including a shot of my dog's bark, Midsfa, be sure to go to themoth.org slash extras or follow us on social media. From all of us here at The Moth, have a story-worthy week. In addition to her work on the Moth's marketing team, ST DeVite is a performer, writer, and dog

mom. A fan of all things creative and story related, ST is also a storytelling coach and graphic designer for the hum and ta shan monologues, an annual Jewish storytelling event. This episode of the Moth podcast was produced by Sarah Austin Janess, Sarah Jane Johnson, and me, Mark Salinger. The rest of the Moth's leadership team includes Sarah Haberman, Kathleen Burns, Jennifer Hickson, Meg Bowles, Jennifer Birmingham, Kate Tellers, Marina Kluccheye, Suzanne Rust, Brandon Grant, Leanne Gully, and Aldi Kaza.

All Maus stories are true as remembered by the Storytellers. For more about our podcast, information on pitching your own story and everything else, go to our website, themoth.org. The Moth podcast is presented by Pierre X, the Public Radio Exchange, helping make public radio more public at PierreX.org. Exchange helping make public radio more public at purex.org.