This is a letter from DINgo to Betty.
DINgo was killed by a car when he left his safe yard
for some unknown reason.
He had been living on a small horse ranch in Ramona with 3 of my friends.
My friends Bill Selena and Betty had been taking care of DINgo
for the past 6 months and
I would visit him a couple of times a week.
He had the most perfect setup a dog could have.
The dogs he mentions in his letter are either
were his current playmates
Austin the Lab Lucy the Chihuahua and
Chelsea the old German Shepherd.
Harley Tausha and Brandy were previous dogs
that had the pleasure of living up there.
Brandy and Tausha lived many years and succumbed
to old age while Harley decided to go
after some livestock one afternoon and
paid the ultimate price.
Betty was the one who devoted herself to the dog’s well-being and
I can’t ever thank her for all she did for my DINgo.
I made a mistake today. I left the yard.
I know I am not supposed but I am a dog and sometimes I don’t listen.
Something bad happened and now I am somewhere else.
It seems like a nice place and some of the dogs
here seem to know where I came from.
Right when I arrived I was met by Brandy Tasha and Harley.
They seemed to know about all the people I knew.
They asked about Bill and Selena and
I told them that they were doing great and
had a wonderful little baby Alexa
that I had the responsibility of guarding.
They asked how Chelsea was.
I asked them if she has always been a mean little dog.
They said yes so I told them she hasn’t changed a bit.
They asked me what my name was and I told them I go by SuperDINgo.
Tasha looked at me and asked if I knew Betty.
I said “of course why do you think I look so happy”.
Tasha then said if I knew Betty
then I should have been going by the name LuckyDINgo.
I thought about this. I have been living on a one-acre parcel that
I have been the top dog of.
(Lucy can tell them the truth many years from now).
I have three of the best dog friends
a SuperDINgo could have in Austin Chelsea and Lucy.
(Not quite true but I am giving Lucy the benefit of the doubt)
I get fed twice a day.
They asked if I was getting warm broth poured over my food.
I told them of course doesn’t all dog food get served that way.
I told them how Betty drives me
around everyday so I get bark
at every moving or nonmoving object I see.
I have my own heater in the garage so that I am warm at night
even when the temperature dips down to freezing.
Every night Betty would let me sit on her lap till I was ready to go to sleep.
In the mornings after breakfast I would help Betty
with feeding the giant brown dog thing that lives in the corral.
While she is doing this I playfully put my tennis ball
where she is going to step so that she knows
I need to play fetch soon.
She always seems to like that.
She always seems to make time to play fetch;
sometimes I think that she enjoys it more than me.
I mean it does get kind of boring for me to keep returning that damn ball to her.
But if it makes her happy then I do what I can do.
I have been heavily involved in the construction of the addition
Bill has been doing to the house.
Nick (they seemed to vaguely remember him) has been digging these holes
everywhere and tying strings across them.
I think he has been trying to make Bill trip
so I have been trying to fill them in and
remove the strings so as Bill doesn’t get hurt.
Bill seems to appreciate this.
Dogs just know when people appreciate them.
During the night I am in charge of security.
So that Bill Selena and Betty know that I am doing my job
I let out an occasional bark.
I try to do this every 2 minutes so that they can sleep easy
knowing the all is safe on my watch.
Sometimes Bill or Selena come out to the garage
to thank me in the middle of the night. I get so happy to see them.
They use the funniest gestures towards me.
I am allowed to use the garage as an inside restroom
at night but I don’t.
My buddy Austin seems to think that he is not allowed to use
the outside restroom and makes a heck of a mess inside the garage.
I sometimes take the blame for what he leaves on the garage floor.
But that’s what friends are for.
I am in charge of the property and Austin is in charge of all the cars.
At least that is what I figure because he keeps peeing on all their tires.
I get blamed for that too.
One thing Bill Selena and Betty don’t seem to understand is physics.
Do they really think a dog my size could have produced
some of the messes in the garage?
Do they really think that a dog that knew how to catch chickens
without going over the property line would pee on a tire?
When I mentioned chickens Harley’s ears perked.
He said “You found a way to catch them without going over the property line?
I could have used you for a partner a while back”. !
I thought over the life I have been leading and realized Tasha was right.
Why the heck has Nick been calling me SuperDINgo?
I was definitely LuckyDINgo.
I am sorry about what I did today.
I made a mistake. I know that you guys are going to miss me.
I want you to know how much I am already missing you.
They seem to have everything here.
There is food all the time.
There is some guy who is constantly throwing Frisbees.
We are allowed to pee on everything.
The water dish is always full.
It is in the shape of a toilet which I don’t get.
It seems to be an “inside dog” joke.
There are no cats here to bother us
even though I actually like cats.
It is a wonderful place.
But it is has nothing on my last home and
it has nothing on you guys.
Here I will be called SuperDINgo
but there I was definitely LuckyDINgo.
Nick
| DINgo aka SuperDINgo |
| Nick Reilly |