Butch’s Big Adventure: Part 1.
Silverfox busted me out and brought me here. Silverfox is the best dog I ever met. He’s from Sirius which is a Star and he showed me where it is in the sky. We can talk about that another time.
There’s Maggie Dog. She’s great. She’s a bitch. She has lots of toys and sometimes she’ll bring one here and leave it so I will have something to play with. And smelly old bones. She’s very kind, but she still bites Dibby Dog sometimes.
Dibby’s real name is Diablo which means the Devil. But Dibby isn’t the Devil. He’s just messed up. He grew up in a little yard, in the city, and he gets confused. He gets in bad moods and won’t do what people tell him to do, so he’s always getting into trouble. Mark and Eva rescued him and they’re really kind, so Dibby tries to be good.
His job is to warn anyone who comes around that this is not their place and that he is really dangerous and they better be careful. He goes crazy and sometimes he even bites someone. Not hard. He’s not mean. But we’re not allowed to do that even just to scare people and he gets in trouble. Mark and Eva have to grab him when he’s like that. They yell at him to make him shut up. Maggie bites him if he comes near her when he’s like that.
One day Dibby and Maggie and me were wandering around the property, checking stuff out. We came to the gate and Dibby went out on the road. There were no cars. It’s an old dirt road so he was ok, but we’re not allowed past the gate. Maggie yelled at him, told him to get back inside the gate, but he pretended he didn’t hear her. She told him he was bad and he would get in big trouble but he kept smelling things and ignoring her. Maggie yelled “BAD DOG” at him, then she went back to the house.
I didn’t know what to do. I should have gone with Maggie, but I was really curious. And Dibby was calling me. He said it was alright, said no one would know. Said he does it all the time.
So I went out the gate.
Dibby’s going “Hey Butch, come here, check this out. Smell this. Platypus shit. I bet he’s in the creek. Let’s check it out.” And he’d run, and come back, and run again. I knew it was bad, but it was fun, so I told myself, “Neil won’t know. I’ll just go for a look and then we’ll go back home.”
The creek tasted really good and I could smell kangaroos and snakes and platypuses. It was really interesting. We explored for ages and I was really happy and then I laid down in the sun and went to half sleep. I dreamed about the platypus. He was really big and I sat on him and he turned into a boat. Then I woke up cause Dibby was going crazy.
A van had pulled up with two men and Dibby was yelling at them. One man opened his door and Dibby went crazy at him. That’s not right because this wasn’t our place and we weren’t even supposed to be there. So I went up to the man to show him I was a good dog. He patted me and rubbed my neck. I could smell lots of dogs on him, and meat. Then he slid open the back of the van and he got in and he kept talking and he said I was a good dog and he had some meat and did I want some? I really did.
There was a little fridge and that’s where the meat was and the man said “Good boy. Come get some.” So I hopped in the van. I just didn’t think. He put some meat on the floor, slipped out and closed the door on me. Then I saw the mesh wire. Oh shit. Then I remembered my old master, the security guard. I remembered cages and beatings.
I could hear Dibby outside, going berserk. He was yelling and jumping and scratching the door. Both the men were back in the front seat now. They were laughing at Dibby.
The van started and they drove me away.
To be continued …
Artwork – German Shepherd Taking a Walk – by Jai Johnson.