Bull Terrier Takes in Slipper
to Raise as Her Own
By Baxter Black
Bonnie and Dan are a happy couple. Jack was merely a ship in the night.
Bonnie is a Bull Terrier. Best described as a 40-pound blunt Cheeto with
stubby
appendages and a pointy tail. Maybe more like a 12-inch concrete pipe
with an antenna. Rough housing with her is like playing with a cinder
block. Why anyone would own something designed to "tarry bulls" could
be explained by applying the same logic to Porche owners; why would anyone
own a car that seats two, costs more than a B-1 Bomber, looks like a
Jerusalem cricket and goes 140 mph—companionship.
Bonnie has tight skin, a breed characteristic she shares with bankers,
so that her eyes have an oriental look and she always appears to be
smiling, which she is! She is affectionate by nature and the perfect
companion for Dan, a retired curmudgeon who still curmudges part time.
Enter Jack. Bull Terrier with a pocket full of genes...Bull Terrier
genes, chromosomes to be more precise, in sizes X and Y, which he deposited
on her uterine doorstep. Bonnie became great with puppy and delivered
the single offspring to great expectation. Alas, tragedy intervened
and the anticipated heir to Dan’s affection did not survive.
Dan was stoic, Jack was indifferent, but Bonnie was distraught.
The day after delivering, Bonnie was found burrowed in a dark corner of an old wooden ammunition box. For two days she lay in the box, leaving only to tend to necessities. Finally Dan peeked into her hiding place with a flashlight and lo and behold, there lay his missing slipper. He had made it himself out of elk hide, leather thongs, and braided rawhide buttons. It was wet and wadded. Bonnie came rushing back, nearly knocking him over and lay down next to the slipper. She licked it lovingly and nudged it with her nose toward her swollen breakfast nook. For the next four days she nurtured and protected the nest. Any time Jack would approach, she’d come bursting out of the box, snarling like a mama grizzly. Dan gave her the time and space she needed to get over the loss. Although, he did ask around about when to wean slippers.
By the time she recovered, his handmade elkhide footwear looked like
a hippopotamus cud. Well, another season has passed. Bonnie is great
with puppy again. Dan is thrilled, and Jack is indifferent. But deep
in her heart I suspect Bonnie is hoping that the new baby will look
as much like Dan as the last one.
Baxter Black is a veterinarian
and cowboy poet. His column appears weekly and airs each Monday at 6:20
a.m. on KGNC Talk Radio 71.
