Lady And Rover

As a boy, I remember getting a German shepherd puppy and naming her Lady.  She was a darling right from the start, protective as all get out, and smart as a whip. Black and tan, and lovable all over. She grew up with us as kids and became a mature dog, right under our noses. I can remember feeling somewhat sorry for her, because even though she had us kids to play with, I felt she might have been lonely when we went to school and wanted another dog to keep her company.
So I was excited when a friend of the family told us he had a white German shepherd male that he needed to find a home for and asked if we wanted it. Jumping up and down and over come with excitement I told the man yes. Of course he told me to go and ask my Dad if it was alright to have it. I went around the corner and waited a few seconds and came back saying my Dad said yes. My Dad was locked up at the time, and I was not about to lose a dog over some mess even if I was 6 and a piece. That man went and came back a few days latter with the biggest off white looking dog I had ever seen. The man was calling me to the car to inspect my new dog, but i was too afraid, trying to count and calculate his teeth. Finally, I got the nerve to go close enough and watched for any signal for my retreat, but felt a few licks on my arm and felt he was harmless enough.
What was I going to do with a full grown dog I thought to myself, even if my dad came out of prison, he would surely know it wasn't a puppy when we got him. Part confused and upset, for i was heart set on a puppy not this humongous beast. If it wasn't for the fact that he was gentle, he could have pulled me like a rag doll any where his heart desired. But there we were, him siting beside me with a leash and me standing almost toe to paw and nose to snout. Boy he was a big dog, and my sister knew it and before we could catch our breath, the man headed down the road as if he didn't want any rebuff concerning the dog.   
The nice man said the dog's name was Rover, and every time we called it, his tail responded as if it was real true. It wasn't long before i had gotten over the fact that he wasn't a puppy, now I had to introduce him to Lady. I tied him up to a tree and some how allowed lady who had been barking the whole time as if she could smell a new comer, to see him for the first time.
I didn't know anything about doggie love, but if I were a betting dude, I would say these two dogs fell in love the moment they saw each other. They all but killed themselves to get to one another, and you can tell they didn't want to fight. I didn't know too much about dog marriage, so I kept them apart and just fed them like I always did Lady. I had no idea that them poor dogs suffered so. How was I suppose to know, I was six and a bit, and my Mom had no idea there was an extra dog in the yard. She heard Lady barking but if you know anything about mothers, you know unless its dripping or dragging in the house, she's cool. It wasn't long before my dad was back home and inspecting everything and notice Rover right away. But not before Rover noticed him and asked for some sort of ID, to which my dad was not happy. I told my daddy a nice man needed a home for the dog, and so there he was. My mom tip toed out in the yard to see for herself, but the dog had her sent down pack and only wagged his tail as if to say ya cool. My dad was silent for a brief moment, and I waited, and waited and waited, and then he smiled, and i felt good, we can keep the dog. Of course it was my Dad who built the dog a house and gave him sex privileges with lady who was all to happy to oblige. Mom and Dad ruled inside while Lady and Rover rule outside.  
When my Mom and Dad had a secrete battle between themselves, us kids found ourselves locked in a choice of convenience, and headed for a crash course in bushman economics. With a make shift shack in the brush, and Lady and Rover as guardians, when Dad was away, we children had lease of the woods and boy did we play. With dogs that barked in base, no one dared bothered us or our space. We related to life in living color, and learned to handle death in the same way, as Smallie (the runt of the litter), a little pup of Lady and Rover's was ran over by the back wheel of my Dad's Taxi. He was just as sad as us and the dogs, and we sprang back like tycoons at the casino. 
Somehow, my dad caught wind of the fact that people were talking about kids living in the wild, and as much as the dogs kept people at bay, my dad wanted us to spend time with an Aunt. So we packed up and went to live with her and took the dogs with us. My Aunt had never seen dogs as big as these for she was use to cats. But being the trooper she was, fed the dogs scraps that made them flourish all the more. Every now and again, we would hear a growl and a nasty barking followed after three or so days a bad order which no one knew what it was. This became a routine until I wanted to see what the smell was, and found it to be a dead dog. How a dead dog get in the back yard was a mystery I had to solve. Turns out that other dogs would come for a date with Lady, and Rover would be in the background unsuspecting and way out of site, Lady in her mini and high heels would walk pass the gate and lure unsuspecting males inside the gate where she would corner them from escape and both would tear into the male like he stole something. When I told my Aunt what was going on, it was too late, she had decided they had to go. I pleaded with her in tears, and she held off until I became sick, very sick indeed. Every time I ate anything it would come back up, so much so, it had my Aunt worried. So she walked me to the hospital four or five or more miles from the hospital. When we arrived, the doctor asked how we got there, we told him we walk, he told my Aunt had I walked one more mile, I would have died.
The Doctor done an emergency operation on my appendix and before they did anything they gave me a needle which all but killed me. When I woke up, I asked when the operation was going to take place. The nurse told me all was done, but i didn't feel nothing, but she assured me, I had been in and i was out for a day or two. I thought to myself, two days, wow, and rested in the nicest bed I ever laid in.  With music from Disney coming over the speakers and a little boy running through the hospital like Jesus on the cross. He had been operated on and they didn't want him to scratch his nose so they stretched him out like the crucifixion, and let him run the halls of the hospital till he dropped from being tired.
It was only when I arrived at my Aunts that no barks meant my dogs were gone. Turned out that my appendix was not the only thing I lost in the hospital, both Lady and Rover was taken to be put to sleep around the time I went to sleep in the hospital. I never missed my appendix, but I sure did miss my dogs. Never did get to say good bye, bust just as well...nj