I wrote a whole book about my dog (www.dogparkdiary.net). It’s about my current dog, a beagle named Goody. But I’ve had many dogs, and don’t they deserve a book too? Maybe, but I just haven’t had time to write them all yet. So instead I’ll write about one of them – my first dog – here in my blog.
My first dog was a dachshund named Zipper. My parents gave him to me the Christmas I was 5. Zipper was the inspiration for my first published work – a poem I wrote at 6, published in Jack and Jill Magazine. (My mother sent it in – I wasn’t into fame back then.) The poem went like this:
He likes his deener
And he likes me too.
Zipper and I had many adventures together during the eight years he was alive. I was a loner kid, always looking for hiding places where I could be alone to dream. But I wasn’t really alone, because Zipper came along. One of our favorite places was inside the thick wild blackberry patch that grew across the street from our house. We made a trail through the thicket, underneath the canes, and hollowed out a circular space where we could curl up together. Protected by the tangle of overhead thorns, with the light filtering through the briar, I would tell Zipper thrilling stories. What a fine listener he was!
He died when I was 13, killed on the road one dark rainy night. Even today it hurts my heart to remember the grief of that night. Some day I will write about it. But not today.
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