‘Ugly’, nine years old, a loyal dog of my family, very ugly. He is small, and anytime you come home he would run to you shaking his tail excitedly. (Aside: that reminds me a joke: ‘How to distinguish a dog and a man? The dog is still excited to see you after you two have known each other for years.’)
Surly, our dog is strong. Unfortunately he has three legs. He broke a hind leg last winter by boldly fighting another big dog. Up to now, none of my family thinks he is disability, because he can run as fast as before. If he has will, it must be very strong. He can confront the misfortune in his life, and never feel discouraged.
Surly, our dog is brave. I always think, in his eyes, he is protecting us. I still remember sometime in some winter, he lied in front of door. The wind was blowing, his hair was waving, and his eyes were stately. It made a picture, like a lion, which was guarding his territory. Until now, anyone if he is a stranger, can’t get in our door, because our dog will be barking and biting him fiercely. Surly, our dog is kind. We have a cat too, which is greedy, lazy. None like the cat, so the cat has no name. But I don’t know why ‘Ugly’ takes care of it so well. Every time, when ‘Ugly’ is eating, if the cat is coming, ‘Ugly’ will leave his food and let the cat to eat. Can you understand it?
Surly, our dog is well-behaved. ‘Ugly’ never eats any food if it is not in his bowl, even if that is meat.
Surly, our dog is dignified. Once we tried to tie him with a belt. No any resistance, no any barking, he just sat and bended down his head, did not move a little. A few minutes, we untied him, and surrendered.
Our dog only did one mistake. He tried to escape from our family. Perhaps, he was one years old, during a period, he did a lot of exercise, including run and bite. And then, he disappeared one day. We were trying to find him for a whole day, until night I find him at a street-side. Obviously, he lost his way home, and looked very scared. I went straight to him, he started to sniff, suddenly, he was shaking his tail, like seeing his lover. What I can say, such a doggy.
I try to write what above as a gift to my friends here before Christmas, but I can’t find time last week. “ Happy New Year my friend”, Dove, Fragrance, Flyheart, Fangjie, David, Mary
Sandy,December 26, 2003
