Beagle Man and I were down at Compo Beach yesterday — and boy, was it a beautiful morning! (I hope you can make out the sun sparkling on the water in the photo, right.) I dashed over toward the cannons, as I always do, and when I got there, this
lady started making a huge fuss over me. Soon I realized why: I looked exactly like her dog! Same red color. Same feathery tail. Same white chest. For a second I thought I was looking in a mirror! Turns out, of course, he’s a Duck Toller, like me. His name is Dodger. Cool name. (He’s not really called Dodger the Third, the way I wrote it in the title, but his dad and his grandpa were both named Dodger, so I like to call him that.) He’s only about one-and-a-half, but other than our age difference, he does everything just the way I do it! He’ll swim for a ball no matter how far out in the water. He can catch it on a fly, from super-long distance. When he retrieves the ball, or stick, or toy, he drops it, backs up a few steps, then looks up at his mom in this irresistible way, to get what he wants — exactly the way I do with Beagle Man! He’ll bring the ball over to total strangers, and coax them to join in. He plays nonstop, and when his mom wants to relax, he just stares and stares at her until she gives in. I heard her tell Beagle Man that she moved up here from New York City just so Dodger could have more space to run around! Hey, I totally get that. I really hope I get to see a lot more of my new pal Dodger.
RICKY THE BEAGLE USED TO HAVE HIS MY PALS COLUMN. I’VE ALWAYS WANTED ONE OF MY OWN. NOW I HAVE IT.
Leave a Reply