The Saga Continues

After the Boxers, then came a short dry spell. This man can live without bread but not without breeds. A friend gave me a young adult Staffordshire terrier named Urko (from Planet of the Apes). He was a nice enough dog but too terrier for my small place and he was used to having lots of room in which to be dominant. I passed him on to another friend who had more room and he lived there happily ever after. Next, I tried a puppy – Staffordshire again - that I had seen advertised in the newspaper. I chose the best of the litter and Stromboli came into my life. Wonderful, happy, active dog. He was with me long enough to grow big and strong and then one day I came home from work and found – “No Dog!!” How can this be????? What I believe happened is that, with a little help from my gardener’s boy helper, Stromboli mysteriously climbed over the fence and pulled the slickest disappearing act ever. The guards at the gate to the neighborhood saw nothing unusual and we all know how attentive and protective they are. So, as a result of this disappearance, certain structural changes were made and a concrete wall went up and additional fencing was added on top of that. Now let ‘em steal my dog! Soon after my dare, another dog appeared - the love of my life. When he entered my yard he entered my heart. Gobbler came on the scene .He was born on Thanksgiving Day hence his name and we both knew we belonged to each other forever. Gobbler was what used to be called a Bull Terrier Guatemalteco but is now called a Dogo Guatemalteco He had one blue eye and the other was brown and all of him was snow white hmmm – just beautiful . He climbed into my lap and straight into my heart where he stayed for thirteen years. I really don’t know who needed whom most. My family had returned to the US so that my sons could attend the university there and my wife no longer wanted to be my wife so the life I had left was pretty dismal until Gobbler, that is. Perhaps he spotted me for a sucker when we first saw each other. He was the last of his litter but not the least and was sitting alone in a plastic kennel case in a vet’s shop. When the vet let him out, he pulled himself together and was a magnificent guard dog on alert from then on. That little guy was standing at perfect attention protecting me from only he knew what and we fell in love. I put him in bed with me that first night and he gingerly extended his nose and I did likewise and we touched and remained sealed together until he went to a better place to wait for me. Arthritis destroyed him and I had him put to rest rather than watch him struggle to be what he used to be so effortlessly. Tears still fill my eyes when I think of him. He rests in my backyard right now and I remember him oh so clearly every time I pass his little corner resting place.

Bill, Boxers and Guatemala

When I started with Boxers, I was in the good ole USA (1960) where I understood things but when I came to Guatemala (first time - 1967, permanently 1974), I had a new life to live and new concepts to incorporate. One of the things I had to learn was that Guatemalans, in general, were not dog people. Dog owners, yes but not into dogs.. Put them on roof tops, put them loose in the yard, feed them left overs from the table, water them and that was it. That is exactly what my wife did and she is Guatemalan and her brother guided her in dog care. It was if she had never been with them before in her life. I sent her and the boys to Guatemala a year before I finally arrived. As soon as they were settled. I sent her five dogs - Jocko, Maggie, JJ (Jocko Jr.) and a sister both offspring of Jocko and Maggie and another female named Brandy. Maggie and her daughter came into season at the same time and fought. Maggie - my first boxer and my beloved friend - fell off the roof - two stories - onto hard concrete and got busted up. They took her to the vet but she was so badly injured that they decided to put her to sleep. I was in the states when I heard I cried like a baby. By the time I arrived, the only ones left were Jocko, JJ and Brandy. I have no idea what happened to the sister. No one ever said anything and my wife did not remember. We rented a house near our supermarket in Jardines de San Juan, Brandy climbed the fence and got out while pregnant by Jocko, got into a dog fight and we took her to the vet. A few stitches and she was fine. The pregnancy did not go well. She never got heavy, never filled with milk. I knew she was pregnant so I took her to the vet. She died trying to give birth. My wife got the phone call and I cried. Moved to a new neighborhood near Jardines- Montserrat II. We were there when the '76 earthquake occurred. We had a solid, comfortable house and the vacant lot next door was walled in and we could use it to put the dogs during the day. They had room and they were protected. They spent the nights with us at the house. My boys were young and my youngest used to take his friends and climb over the wall to be with the dogs. JJ bit him - don't know why.. The friends came running into the store to tell me and I flew home and took my son to a nearby doctor because of the emergency. He promptly sewed up the wound. No anesthesia and my boy cried. The tears welled in my eyes because he hurt so. My sister-in-law, a doctor, told us that one should not sew up a dog bite because of the danger of infection so we took my boy to another doctor who removed the stitches. Not long after that Jocko Jr. died, poisoned from eating ant poison the gardener had used in the yard at the house. We moved to a house in Molina de la Flores with Jocko. My five dogs became only one.. Later we found a nice big house in El Carmen and there we stayed with Jocko until it was time for the boys to go to the states to study in the university in 1982. Jocko died of old age . I used to exhibit him at the Girl Scout's dog shows and we gave examples of obedience training at La Aurora. He was a good dog. I felt sad when he died but no more tears. My heart had hardened by then. I was finished with Boxers.