It’s taken my dog, Dusty, a long time to feel comfortable enough in the house to play, but he finally decided the other day that it was okay to chase this toy.
Some of his reticence might be due to how the cat, Sammy, terrorizes him, but some of it is due to the fact that Dusty had been abused in a previous home, and he ducks and cowers at loud noises, even when we are outside walking. Just like with a child, it can take a long time and a lot of love to undo the damage of abuse of an animal.
Since I introduced this blog post with something about my current dog, I thought I’d share a bit from my humorous memoir, A Dead Tomato Plant & A Paycheck about dogs that graced our lives in the past. This section follows one about cats and how our daughter who was allergic tried to talk us into taking one of the kittens that our neighbor had. Enjoy…
Needless to say, we did not adopt one of the kittens, and for a while we thought we could survive without a pet.
After a few months, however, it became clear that we were not that kind of family. We all longed for four-footed friend, and we got Ruffy, who was part German Shepard and part wolf. He was a cute little fuzzy puppy who grew up into a good-sized dog, and he was primarily an outside. Except for the time something scared him, and he crashed through the window on the French door leading into the house from the patio.
I was in the kitchen cleaning up from supper when I heard the commotion. Anjanette ran in and announced, “Ruffy came in.”
“Who opened the door?”
“Nobody. He came through the window.”
“What window?”
“The window in the door.”
“But he’s huge and that window is small.”
Anjanette shrugged.
By then, Ruffy had wandered into the kitchen and was checking under the table for scraps. I went into the living room, and sure enough, one pane of glass was broken out of the French door. Luckily, it had come out clean so there were no jagged edges that could have cut the dog, but I still checked him. How on earth had that great big dog fit through an opening about eight inches by twelve?
Ruffy was quite fierce when storms weren’t scaring him. One time when the kids were out in the back playing and a neighbor tried to come through the gate, Ruffy sat like a growling sentinel and wouldn’t let the neighbor in. I had to tell my neighbor to always come to the front door when she wanted to visit.
When he wasn’t loose to play in the yard, Ruffy had a large pen and loved to run the perimeter while one of us squirted him with the hose. That was especially refreshing in the heat of a Texas summer, but it did have one downside. The weeds and grass grew like Jack’s beanstalk inside the pen.
Ruffy was always good for a romp or a walk, and it was undeniable that he wormed his way into all our hearts. Never was that more evident than when the kids did a survey at the dinner table and decided they all liked the dog better than me.
If you liked the excerpt, you can read another at AllAuthor, and while you are there, you can vote for the cover in the cover-of-the month contest. All votes greatly appreciated.
That’s all for me folks. I’ll be at a concert at the Winnsboro Center For the Arts this weekend, and it will be great to see some friends from there, as well as hear some great music. Albert & Gage, are doing a special tribute to Jimmy Lafave, who died in May 2017. The exhibit in the gallery is featuring some of the photography of LaFave, whose work has appeared in numerous galleries. I’m really looking forward to the weekend of fun.
Whatever your plans, I do hope you have a good weekend. Be safe. Be happy.
I enjoyed reading this story! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by. Glad you enjoyed the post.