the neglect

I had the privilege of being the part of a very important duo when i was growing up.  I didn't think about the importance of it until i was much older.  This duo made me feel very important and special.  My adoptive father was able to get a police dog.  Since you aren't ever sure if the stories he tells are the truth or not, i am not sure if this dog ever worked a day in his life, but i loved him just the same. I don't have a childhood memory without this dog.  When we moved from California to Warner America, the dog came with us.  After to divorce, my mother came to pick me up and the dog was so covered in ticks that my mother cried all the way home.  It is ironic that my adoptive father will talk so fondly of that dog and he just ignored and neglected that dog and he probably died in a field alone. 

My ex husband asked me one day what had happened to smokey, i didn't know.  He asked me how i could have no idea what happened to a dog that i had loved so much.   I was only a child.  I took on the same indifference that my adoptive father did.  It breaks my heart to think of how that dog protected me and how he only wanted a little attention in return. 

One time i had rescued these cats, cindy and sandy were their names.  Only Bob Barker spoke of spaying and neutering your animals.  I guess my parents didn't watch the price is right.  I have no idea how many unwanted and unneeded kittens those cats had, but my adoptive father loaded them up and took them to the "animal shelter".  Amazingly, 6 months later one of the cats showed up.  I told the story for years about how that cat managed to make it home from 30 miles away.  It makes me ill to wonder what the heck he did with those animals, it would have been more humane to shoot them in the head. 

We never spoke about the cats or the dog.