Monday, February 22, 2016

Smokey (Wolf/Beast)

Growing up I always called Smokey "Wolf" or "The Beast" or "Wolfenstein" or other names like that. But in reality, he was a rather submissive dog and not the beast I imagined him to be. Smokey and Lucy grew up together in their early years, but a fight broke up where he ripped her ear and she lived permanently at my mom's house while he'd remain at my dad's.

He was younger than Lucy, born sometime in January or February 1994. When they first met and played together as puppies, she was slightly bigger than him but he'd quickly grow to be more than twice her size and then grow bigger than Magic the Labrador. He was a mutt, I think Border Collie/German shepherd. He was black all over except white on the bottom.

He learned different tricks than Lucy, more manly tricks. They both could sit/stay/come, but Smokey never made noises like "hello". His favorite trick was shaking. He always offered to shake my hand. He barked a lot but he was rarely violent. He did rip off a shirt once but with me he only licked me a lot and shook my hand.

One time when I was in 6th grade though, I decided I was big enough to walk this 80 pound beast. I was wrong. He found something interesting and my scrawny body wasn't strong enough to stop him. I fell over as he escaped. I had a dream that week that actually became a reality. I dreamed that I was a small personal aircraft crashing into power lines as my body ached. And then a California Condor (perhaps named Conor Gillaspie?) landed on top of the downed power lines. This was in 1996 or maybe 1997.

13 years later, this would actually happen. Plane crashes into power lines 2010

He lived a short life, only to age 12 I believe. The most memorable moment is when Attila finally sniffed him after being afraid of him for years. He responded by licking Attila.

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