Another very old image. Found this, much to my surprise and pleasure, in a box through which I was searching for something else entirely.
This is Blitzen, my first dog. As a kid, my only dog. Blitzen was a shepherd-collie mix and we got him as a puppy and I adored this dog. We were very much a standard-issue boy and dog team. I used to sleep on the floor with my head on Blitzen’s chest. Blitzen was a great dog.
Well, we got Blitzen when we lived in our own house on Wyoming, which had a big backyard. My dad trained him—I was about five when we got him. Then we moved. For many reasons I still don’t entirely understand, my parents sold the house and we moved into the first floor apartment below my grandparents on Michigan, still in South St. Louis.
It was not a big apartment. Not that it mattered to me. I was vast and contained multitudes, my imagination was more than enough to make up for cramped quarters.
And I had Blitzen. We were buddies.
Until about fifth grade. Maybe fourth. Whatever. I came home from school and Blitzen was gone. Mom told me they had seen Blitzen trying to get outside when I was play wrestling with my friends and they thought if he ever did he’d tear someone apart, because he clearly didn’t understand the difference between playing and real. I wailed. My dog was gone. I was utterly inconsolable.
Worse—though it didn’t hurt nearly as much—it was a lie. One of the few my parents ever told me. I found out the truth just a few years ago. Basically, Blitzen terrified my grandmother—who was not a particularly nice lady—and she demanded the dog be gotten rid of. Her building, her roof, her rules.
Dad never said a word about it. Mom told me the story, because she didn’t want me resenting my grandmother. But it made more sense this way. Blitzen was a good dog and obeyed me. But he apparently didn’t like my grandmother. His radar was pretty good.
Since owning my own house now with Donna we’ve had two dogs—Kory and now Coffey—and I loved ’em both. Coffey especially reminds me a bit of Blitzen, though Kory actually looked like him.
But you never get over your first dog.
