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.