In Need of a Dog

Lately I've been wanting a dog. I grew up with a dog (Bogart - a friendly sweet yet slightly mentally incompetent Lassie Collie) and my parents have a dog (Duke - a gorgeous lively loyal German Shephard/Border Collie mix) and many of my friends have dogs and I see lots of dogs daily on the street as I walk to and fro and my boss has several dogs some of whom come to work the odd day. But now I want my own dog. I have two cats and I live in an apartment but I'm determined to not let my odds stack against me. I will get what I want.

This picture, although not food related is me related so I'm writing it anyway, was taken a year ago when my parents had TWO dogs. One was the aforementioned Duke and the other was Dax - a hyper irreverent foster care dog who had been a member of many families before us. He often ran away. Despite his short-comings, we all came to think Dax was pretty special and pretty cute; he had floppy ears that flapped up and down as he dashed to and fro on his various journeys. Walking with Dax was complicated because he'd run off at such a distance it was hard to convince him to come back. But he always did. Food was the key. He'd come home exhausted and sweaty and gulp his food down then fall asleep in front of the fire. He was a rebellious little sidekick to Duke who didn't often leave the farm property of his own volition. Duke was a guarder, a fortress knight. He liked to stay close to the house, perched on the lawn, looking out at the distant lands. He never wandered off unsolicited. Until Dax arrived. Dax used to run down the laneway towards the beckoning farmlands and then sit on his rear, turn his head back to where Duke remained, bark a little as a taunt, run a bit more, then sit and wait. Duke sometimes turned his head and lay back down but sometimes he gave in and off he'd run down the drive and we'd see two dark bodies hurtling down the road toward the Bruce Trail where they could run back and forth unimpeded by human or vessel.

One day last winter they both ran off and only Duke came home. We never saw Dax again.