Park Cities People,
Thursday, March 6, 2003
"Clancy's Sold on his Job as the Official Estate Sale Dog"
by Dena Hill, Staff Writer
Clancy Abraham loves a good estate sale. Or rather, he loves being in
the midst of an estate sale. It's become part of his personality, even his
very identity, making him, perhaps, a breed apart.
"He is Mister Cool
about the whole thing," said Bob Williams of Clancy, his 8-year old
apricot-colored miniature poodle. "He will stand at the door and greet the
people. It's amazing the people who come in to the sales and clearly
gravitate to him." Williams, a retired banker in his mid-60s, works with
Jeff Hamlin in Jeff Hamlin Estate Sales, where Clancy surveys all sales
large or small.
"He will pick out a spot on the sofa or a chair and monitor
things. He is completely at ease with all of the people who work with us,
and they're just crazy about him," Williams said.
Clancy himself came from
the circumstances of an estate sale, when his former owner, Dorothy
Abraham, died. Williams helped Hamlin handle the estate sale and ended up
as Clancy's new owner when he learned that the 15-pound poodle needed a
home.
Williams said he worried at first about what he would do with Clancy
when he was away working at sales, but his answer came during the very
next estate sale.
"The first day I left him (Clancy) at home, he just
looked so sad. The next day we took him to the sale and he's never missed
a sale since," Williams said.
That was two years ago. Since then, Clancy
has forged a career, making friends and even recognizing regular
customers, Williams said, "He's kind of gotten known as the estate sale
dog. He knows every inch of whatever house you're working in."
Like the
other workers at the sales who wear nametags, Clancy has his own nametag
shaped, of course, like a bone.
Clancy usually stays in the main room up
toward the checkout.
"He is part of the team," Williams said of Clancy's
well-behaved attitude. "I think he's a great asset. He makes all of us
happy, and I think he makes the customers happy."
Although Williams has
had offers from customers to buy Clancy, that is clearly not an option.
"We always tell people he's priceless," Williams said.
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