Category: Lucky

Lucky is Aunt Mel’s farm dog. He helps with chores, supervising feeding the horses and pig. He barks an alarm when the coyotes are in the pasture or when the morning doves are sitting on the electric lines. He is very helpful except when he is distracted by his one nemesis. The Frisbee.

More than anything in the world, Lucky loves to play with his Frisbee (always hot pink). He runs in front of Aunt Mel and strategically drops it in her pathway. Positioned so she must either step around it or on it. Rather than do either, Aunt Mel obliges Lucky, and picks it up and throws it. Again and again and again.

Lucky loves to chase it. He loves to jump in the air and catch it. Then he drops it to the ground so he can growl at it and push it with his nose. When he reaches the driveway, he places it upright and gives it a good nose push. With a little air underneath, the frizbee floats across the drive making a loud scraping noise. Lucky chases it and puts his front feet on the suspended Frisbee, pushing it further along with his back legs. Not unlike someone riding a skateboard. Somehow around all his frenetic chasing, after a few short minutes, the Frisbee is dropped or pushed back to Aunt Mel’s feet. And once again, she picks it up and gives it a yet another toss.

When Lucky moved in with Aunt Mel and he was quite a handful. He simply didn’t want to listen to any rules or commands. He just wanted to play and eat and bark at the horses. But dogs that live on a farm with large animals have to learn commands and rules to avoid being hurt. Aunt Mel decided Lucky needed an education. She enrolled him into an obedience class.

The first class didn’t start well. Lucky snapped and barked at all the other puppies. No one wanted to be near him. He leaned at the end of his leash and pulled to get away from Aunt Mel. Once class started, the teacher showed us how to teach our puppies to sit. Lucky didn’t get it.

During the second class, Aunt Mel and Lucky made little progress while the other puppies learned to lie down, stay and come. During the third class, Aunt Mel told Lucky to sit and he finally sat but only for a few seconds. This, however, was their crowning achievement because the fourth class focused on walking on a leash without pulling. Lucky did not oblige. Obedience class ended without a diploma for Lucky.

Aunt Mel wasn’t sure if she could manage this little puppy with a mind of his own. But she decided to give it a little more time. Eventually Lucky and Aunt Mel learned to talk to one another in their own way that works. Lucky knows about 10 words – “leave it, here, water, supper, where’s your Frisbee and car ride” The only command retained from obedience class now yields an immediate result. Sit Lucky Sit! Good Boy!

One cold October morning, Aunt Mel heard a little dog barking while she was feeding the horses. She looked around and spied a little brown dog staring at her from the rental house next door. The dog barked for a while but no one came out of the house to check on it.

During the next few days, the little dog barked when Aunt Mel was working in the yard. Aunt Mel started to wonder if anyone was still living in the house? Surely they wouldn’t move and leave their dog behind?

A few more days passed, it was clear the house was empty. It had been over a week, cold and rainy. The little dog still barked at Aunt Mel. Aunt Mel got in her truck and drove over to the house.

The people were long gone and had trashed the house; removing screens, breaking the porch rails, toys and household garbage was left strewn across the yard. Aunt Mel tiptoed to the back of the house and found the little dog.

The people had constructed a 3 x 3’ cage out of chicken wire and broken bits of wood. It had no roof, and inside, no shelter. There was no bowl for water or food, just the little brown dog fearfully scrunched in the far corner. He was shaking and very thin.

Aunt Mel broke the door and the little dog bolted into her arms. She drove straight to the vet’s office.

The vet determined that the dog was about 6 months old. He was malnourished and only weighed 8 lbs. He should have weighed three times that. The puppy was carefully examined and found healthy except for the obvious neglect. He was given necessary shots and a bag of good puppy food. When paying the vet for their services, they asked “what’s the puppy’s name?”

Aunt Mel answered without hesitation, “Lucky!”

Lucky had a new home at Aunt Mel’s farm. In a few months, he had grown to a normal weight for his age. For a dog raised outside with little human contact or training, he immediately took to living inside and sleeping in bed with Aunt Mel.

He is still fearful of children and strangers. But once he meets you, you are a friend for life. He never forgets someone he meets. It is remarkable that someone left him in a cage without food or water. Luck was certainly on Lucky’s side when Aunt Mel rescued him from the horrible, little cage.