When "Cesar" Met "Dino"

It was in 1992 that I heard this story from my good friend Esther, and this story is about her dog - Cesar - a big, black, and beautiful Labrador and a Chihuahua called Dino.

Saturday and Esther, her sons and her dog were at home in Canberra enjoying a cold, chilly Winter's day.

It was mid- afternoon when a friend rang to ask if she pop around for a visit. She also asked if Esther would mind if she brought her dear little dog, Dino, with her.

Now Dino was a Chihuahua, just a tiny little thing really. A "dog" to keep in your handbag. A happy, companionable little chap. The sweet apple of his doting mother's eye!

With some regret Esther advised against the inclusion of Dino to her friend's proposed visit; she explained that she was unsure in fact she just did not know how her Labrador, Cesar, would re-act to the tiny visitor.

"Come by yourself", she advised - "But I think you had best leave Dino at home!".

Well, the upshot was that the friend decided to visit Esther with her dog. She said to Esther that it should be quite ok - after all both animals were dogs - same canine family - therefore her - as in Esther's - fears were ungrounded and the interaction between the two dogs should not be a problem.

It was cosy in front of the fire and they got chatting. Time passed and it got to be quite late in afternoon and then it was time for Esther's friend to return home.

Unfortunately, Dino had disappeared. He was nowhere to be seen. They searched everywhere for Dino, looked high and low but he was gone. They got Esther's sons to join in the search, but they had no joy either.

It appeared that he could not have escaped from here; the garden was secure and around the house site was a solid brick fence; plus, there were sturdy gates that were securely closed and locked.

Now because Dino was such a small dog, they became most worried that maybe he had got stuck somewhere. Pipes were checked, holes looked into, logs turned over and so it went; all to no avail. No small dog to be found anywhere!

The neighbours were roped in. And no, they hadn't seen hide nor hair of Dino. Although the big and obvious question that hung in the ether was how could he have got out of such a secure environment? It seemed impossible.

Everyone had jointly ransacked the house as they all looked for this little dog -  the house ended up looking like a tip but….no Dino. Not anywhere! Nowhere was he to be found.

Up shot -  Dino's mother was bereft and went home minus her dog and as you can imagine, in a most distraught state. Tears were the order of the day for this poor woman.

Meanwhile Esther sat in front of her fire and continued to fret about all the possible places the missing dog could possibly be. They had looked just about everywhere. Well, she fretted and worried endlessly - well you could almost say that she was worrying for Australia such was her distress!

And then she spied a most contented Cesar lying down, snoozing quietly by the fire; happily licking his chops and making those happy noises that dogs can make.

While there was no proof of his cannibalism, and it is also known that Labradors are retrievers and not usually killers. Unfortunately however, his happy and contented state coupled with the huge albeit fruitless search that had just taken place, all seemed to point directly to him being the culprit, the possible author of Dino's disappearance.

But was he really the author of poor Dino's early demise?

Who would know?

How to prove if so?

Was he being made the scapegoat for something he had not done?

But unfortunately, in Esther's eye he really appeared to be quite a well-fed dog that day!

Oh Dear! I personally would rather think that something else had happened to Dino that day. And that would be anything other than being eaten by a Labrador!

Now if this is what caused the disappearance of Dino - and here I go trying to explain stuff to myself again - it is hard to envision that Cesar ate Dino! And this is because after living with Humphrey our black Labrador for just 16 short years; hand on heart I can say he never ate anything other than his biscuits and bones. Maybe he thieved food occasionally off the coffee table if he thought he could get away with it but certainly not a living creature…

To the best of my knowledge - Labradors only retrieve I thought, not actively hunt and kill. So, my premise is that there must have been another breed mixed into Cesar's genes - a breed trained to hunt and kill.

I have no idea what that could be, but I do know I do not want my beloved Humphrey's memory as the "best boy ever!" to be even slightly besmirched, tainted if you will by this terrible yet unproven story.

Vale Dino.