Farfel was just supposed to drag out the word “chocolate” in a bass voice, but Nelson’s hand slipped off the controls inside Farfel and the dog’s jaws clicked shut. A ventriloquist is never supposed to blunder like this. The Nestlé’s executives loved it, and Nelson did the commercial this way for the next ten years. The rest became TV history (and our sibling torture).

Winnie Actually Farfel was born in 1950, five years before his TV success. Nelson was performing in a nightclub in Wichita and picked up a stuffed dog that some patron had left on the piano. He started talking in the voice that Americans would soon come to love as Farfel’s. The audience roared so Nelson had the same Chicago puppeteer who had created Danny O’Day for him, make the dog dummy. Farfel and straight man Nelson worked many gigs in the Catskills. In fact, the name “Farfel” comes off the Borscht Belt menus-from the Yiddish word for small pieces of matzo.

Where is Farfel now, you ask? He lives in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky at Vent Haven, the world’s only museum dedicated to the art of ventriloquism. The curator does her best to dispel the dummy-phobia brought on by the “Chuckie” films. Town Shelter (643-9270) Lamar St. W. Babylon are two sweet, honey-colored dogs. Both females have rabies shots, courtesy of a “Cozy Pet” donation, which can expedite their adoptions. “Winnie” is a docile Boxer mix in Cage 53 and “Roo” is a tiny Shepherd mix in Cage 59. “Roo” has been featured here before. Roo’s far too good to be overlooked. She does all sorts of trickssit, down, roll over. She’s extremely well mannered and seems indifferent to cats. See more photos at Babylon Shelter’s Petfinder site.

Roo Males: “Charlie”a yellow Lab mix who loves to play ball in Cage 9; “Miracle”the white Pit mix in Cage 5; two purebred Labsa yellow in Cage 27 and a chocolate in Cage 19.

Females: a black Ridgeback mix with a real ridge in Cage 65; “Miss Piggy” in Cage 49; “Becky Thatcher”the sweet gray tabby mother cat from maternity in C-8.

Rememberthis Sun. Feb. 5 from noon to 3“Last Hope Low Cost Vaccination Clinic” at “Cozy Pet”, 765 Deer Park Ave., N. Babylon. Call 669-2099. Prices and directions at: www.lasthopeanimalrescue.org.