Heathcliff

He had to be about the ugliest dog I have ever seen! My brother was welding in the oilfields and found this strange looking pup on the side of the road. Being the kind soul, my brother was he picked him up and brought him home, he was mostly starved, with a long skinny snout, a coon dog body and green eyes. We had no choice but to name him Heathcliff and yes, there were times when he showed me the dark side of love. With everyone else in the family too busy, he became my responsibility and though I loved him and I know he loved me, there were numerous times when I wished he understood “don’t embarrass me or else” it just didn’t seem to work for me with him as well as it did for mom with us kids.

I was just coming thirteen and as a pre-teen I was fat and had no concept of proper grooming and with money in short supply I dressed a bit oddly, but that summer, it all came together, I lost weight, found a little part time job and discovered that when my hair was clean and combed and my face washed, I was kind of cute. Not only was I becoming aware of myself physically, but I was also becoming aware of boys and the fact they were aware of me.

Lucky me! I had a large, active dog that needed walked around our small town a lot. Not so lucky for me, this dog had a penchant for finding ways to embarrass me. For instance, one afternoon in the park when I had the attention of some cute boys from school and he decides it was time for tug of war, with my pant leg… yep, on my keister I landed or the time the first boy that ever asked me for a date was talking to me outside my house, Mike was sitting on his bike and Heathcliff walked over and hiked his leg on the front tire.

The worst though, when I was finally old enough to go on a car date, granted it was only on Wednesday nights to youth group, only on nights when my brother was going to bible study and another girl had to ride with us. But still a car date and we were allowed to sit in Rob’s truck outside my house and talk until dark.

Some time had passed since Heathcliff had embarrassed me and I am convinced he spent that time plotting the ultimate embarrassment. One evening, Rob and I were sitting in his truck after our “date”, holding hands, laughing and basking in the glow of infatuation. Heathcliff launched his diabolical plan, that leggy son of gun, jumped from standing flat footed onto the hood of Rob’s pick up, onto the roof of the truck and then into the back of the truck. Now that alone was bad enough, but he refused to get out until Rob took him for a ride around the block, considering he didn’t pee on or knock anyone down, that alone doesn’t seem too bad. However, for the rest of the summer, every time Rob would come to pick me up for youth group, that dog would jump on the hood, on the roof and into the back of the truck and go on our date with us.

Seeing as how we lived in a very small town, there are still people that remember my strange escort to youth group. Yeah, class reunions are a lot of fun, but at least no one ever messed with Rob's truck while we were at the church.

Not long after that my brothers job moved him to another town and he took ‘cliff with him. I missed that dog, but I sure didn’t miss being embarrassed by him.