THE SUPER DOG CHRONICLES SUPER DOG COMES TO LIVE WITH US Early in June of 1969, Kim and her daddy had been over in the Texas Piney Woods along the Trinity River. Kim walked in with this tiny little red ball of fur nestled in her arms. It looked like a wind-up toy. It seems this woman my husband knew had a litter of puppies she was going to drown if somebody didn’t take them away. They were really too young to leave their mother—being only 4 weeks old—but soft-hearted little Kim grabbed the bully of the litter and claimed him for her own. I’m told that all 5 or 6 pups appeared to have a different daddy, and if you watched long enough, you would see a different little male dog trotting down the road that matched a puppy in the litter. In deep East Texas, they bred these little dogs with great noses to be squirrel dogs. 48
Pat’s Horse Tales
When I put down a saucer of milk for the puppy, he started lapping so hard that his little hind end came up another notch with each lap, like an old schoolroom clock, until he fell in the bowl face first. That first night was miserable. We put him in the laundry room in a box with blankets, and he howled. Then I put a ticking clock in the box with him. And he howled. I moved the box to my side of the bed, and he howled … until, finally, I put my hand in the box with him. I slept with my hand hanging off the side of the bed touching him all night long. The next day, he got his first flea bath—he was covered in them. Then he went to the vet in my purse. When we walked in, the vet’s wife and her German shepherd were in the waiting room. While she and I were talking, I put my little partner down on the floor, and he bristled all over and charged the humongous shepherd barking like crazy. The big dog’s eyes got really big, he yipped, and ran around behind his mistress and hid. At that moment, “Super Dog” just fell out of my mouth, and that became his name. The second night of Super Dog’s life with us, my arm was so sore from hanging off the side of the bed that I put him in bed with me. And that’s where he slept for the next
