The thought came to me when I saw my neighbor walking his dog. Every day he walked his dog at the same time. The dog was big and black with a square head and a sleek body.\u00a0 It\u2019s a personal prerogative I know but I prefer if a dog has the audacity to be big-bear like big; teddy bear big.\u00a0 A dog with a sleek muscular body conveys hunter and me, prey.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So it came to me to get a Chihuahua.\u00a0 One of those annoying little beasts that bark constantly.\u00a0 I thought I\u2019d test the waters first, so I went to an adopt-a-dog kennel and I met a perfect little firecracker named\u2026 Sleepy.\u00a0 I was not deterred by the name because he had tiny feet and pranced about as if plugged into a high voltage outlet.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I came home with a soft bed, food and a promise to try each other out for three days.\u00a0 It was hell.\u00a0 The first thing he did was pee.\u00a0 No kidding, I set Sleepy down and his little legs quaked, and he dripped pee right where he stood.\u00a0Divided equally between pity and annoyance, I cleaned the tiny mess up.\u00a0 The dog, looked up at me with a look of abject sorrow.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll try again, big fella.\u201d\u00a0 I said.\u00a0 I gave old Sleepy a scratch behind his ears and tried to convey to him he was, in fact, a dog.\u00a0 Despite his diminutive size, he should act like\u2026 well, a dog.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We moved back into the compact living room of my house and I felt the little guy shake.\u00a0 It was at this point, I thought maybe this is a terrible idea. I set Sleepy down on the floor.\u00a0 He kept himself together enough not to pee and started sniffing the air.\u00a0 Moving to my chair and picking up my notebook, I tried to write a few pages of rhyme that would pay my bills and keep Sleepy in the posh. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m a poet and according to some critics and my publisher I\u2019m not a bad one.\u00a0 I spent most of my life traveling with my ne\u2019er-do-well-father.\u00a0 I was in several schools, missed weeks at a time and never fit in.\u00a0 The one thing my Dad kept me in was notebooks.\u00a0 At 13 I filled them.\u00a0 At 15, I had several.\u00a0 When Dad and I parted ways, I was 18 and enrolled in a community college.\u00a0 An alcoholic and despondent English composition professor took an interest in me.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The money wasn\u2019t good, but I was used to fast food wages so when poetry paid out, I thought my life was pretty well perfect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until I bought the small house on this quiet shaded street where my neighbor and his dog walked by like clockwork. The realtor priced the house to sell. I bought it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I looked up from my notebook as I heard Sleepy issue out with a deep-throated growl. The dog was peering down the hallway, his little hind legs shaking like well-played fiddle strings. \u201cEasy, boy.\u201d Not knowing what else to say. Sleepy turned about quickly as if he were chasing his stubby tail and barked, backed up, growled, and then fell over, feet up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was mortified. Had I killed the dog? I threw down my notebook and crouched down next to the poor mutt. I rubbed his tummy and felt his heart thumping. His eyes were shut tight, but then he looked up at me. His eyes were compassionate but sad. I picked the dog up and carried him outside to the porch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Again my neighbor was walking his dog, the big black sleek dog that put everyone at a distance. The little Chihuahua shot out of my arms and straight for the big black dog. My neighbor\u2019s dog stood his ground. Sleepy barked and growled and snapped, dodging about like a boxer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I picked up Sleepy and apologized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo worries,\u201d said my bohemian looking neighbor, \u201cyou need a killer like that living in that house.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOh?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNobody has lasted as long as you have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI will admit that it\u2019s a bit spooky.\u201d As we talked Sleepy kept up a low growl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Neighborhood kids used to dare each other to stand on the porch for a solid minute. Would swear some lady would look out through the curtains at them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWow, kids don\u2019t change much.\u201d I felt a little weak-kneed as the reality of my situation seemed to be proved. \u201cDid something happen in there?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Yeah, I murdered my wife in there and her dog.\u00a0 The dog gave a good fight,” here my neighbor looked at the big black dog in front of him, “but I prevailed. But now he walks me all over the damn place.” My neighbor walked down the deep-shadowed sidewalk and faded from sight. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The thought came to me when I saw my neighbor walking his dog. Every day he walked his dog at the same time. The dog was big and black with a square head and a sleek body.\u00a0 It\u2019s a personal prerogative I know but I prefer if a dog has …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,3,19],"tags":[11,17,23],"class_list":["post-911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ghost-story","category-short-fiction","category-writing","tag-amwriting","tag-ghoststory","tag-writing"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lydiaink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lydiaink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lydiaink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lydiaink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lydiaink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=911"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lydiaink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1923,"href":"https:\/\/lydiaink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911\/revisions\/1923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lydiaink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lydiaink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lydiaink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}