Buddies

My favorite dog in the world was Tank, a large, 120-pound, furry black dog. He looked like a huge black lab only with more "feathers" on his tail and legs. He was almost human. I own a fat wiener dog named Bo and my SIL had Roxie, or Houndini as she called her. The fastest dog I have ever seen. My other brother has a huge Irish hound looking dog, Cabo, so ugly she is beautiful. She easily weighs 130 pounds or more and she thought she was the boss of everyone. Tank tolerated her, Bo ignored her, and Roxie loved to torment her. Cabo loves to chase tennis balls and will play forever running it down, but lord help the dog that tried to get to it first. Did I mention she was bossy? Well, when Roxie got big enough to play, it was a different ballgame altogether.

We were throwing the ball and the dogs would run all over each other to get to it. Bo tried like mad to keep up on his short little legs, his ears flopping in the air, half the time ending up being rolled like a sausage when the big dogs would run him over chasing the ball. I guess Roxie got tired of playing second fiddle to Cabo. Cabo probably outweighed Roxie by about 100 pounds easily, but Roxie could have worn a cape and been an action figure she was so fast. The next time the ball gets thrown, Cabo runs like mad, huge and quick to get the ball. Roxie races after her, goes UNDERNEATH her (like the scene in Christmas Vacation when they get stuck under the truck), gets to the ball FIRST, and scampers away. Cabo looks down in disbelief and in that instance runs head long into a tree. To this day, I always wonder if Roxie planned it that way.

One day, we were all visiting my sister and her husband in the Valley. We left Tank, Bo, and Roxie in their backyard and went to dinner. Roxie was an escape artist but they have a high fence and we figured no way could they get out. After dinner, we head back to my sister's house following my BIL in his loud Chevy van. We turn the corner and get out of our cars. As we stand there waiting for everyone to show up, we look down the street and under the street light we see three dogs trotting along at a pretty good clip headed for us. We do a double take. It is Tank, Bo, and Roxie with Tank in the lead, Roxie next with her tongue that perpetually hung out of her mouth as if it were too long to fit in her head, and Bo trailing.

We yell at all three dogs and put them back in the yard wondering how on earth they just did not get lost. Bo follows his nose everywhere and always got lost in our old neighborhood. Thank goodness all my neighbors eventually learned where he belonged and Roxie was truly an escape artist. The more we thought about it the more we could not figure it out. All the gates were still locked and there did not appear to be an opening they could all have fit through.

But there they were, all safe and sound. My BIL loved his dog and he felt bad about hollering at him. We went outside to check on them. Tank is lying down and will not turn around to look at us. He has a thoroughly put out attitude going on. BIL tries to get Tank to turn around but Tank actually moves to keep his back to us. If dogs could talk, I am quite sure he would have told us off. He led the other two nimrods back to safety and what does he get as his reward? Bless his heart, he was so smart and the other two dogs had more bark than brains, so he knew he had to get them home.

I hope Tank is enjoying himself with endless pizza, no fleas, and all the dog treats he can eat in doggie heaven.