Micronesia Mutts

By: Joy Charles, The Muttly Crew (contributor)

On the islands, sand and coconut trees are as common as seeing crystal blue sky and cotton balls of clouds. Surprisingly, pups are also common, roaming freely around the beaches and mountain terrains. At 9 years old I anointed myself an amateur veterinarian, rescuing abandoned puppies and closing wounds on strays. One specific time remains vividly in my mind, when I rescued a handful of pups left in the bush. It was a rainy day and I could hear puppy screams from my bedroom. I grabbed a bucket and headed out with a flashlight, the skies were dark and no one was around. I peeled the bushes to find a spotted band of misfits, pink noses, with eyes still closed crawling over one another, 5 little blessings. Upon cleaning the fab five, I realized that their eyes were stuck with maggots, it was gross but I took my time with a pair of tweezers pulling each nasty maggot out of each eyelid. 

Once all was done, a day or so later the beautiful innocent eyes of  Freeway, Hamburger, Shake, Peanut and Amigo opened. Mutts blessings with attitudes. They followed me everywhere, people were scared of Shake and Peanut the biggest of the bunch but they were gentle and silly. I loved every single one of them, Amigo was timid but really stubborn, Hamburger so lazy half the time I had to drag her off the ground. Freeway was the wild one, always getting into fights with the neighboring dogs. She ended up with a half ear from her many MMA fights. I can't remember how many times I had to clean her wounds but the thing about her? She was a secret lover, a cuddler with my cat Frisky, they would lounge by the front door all day if they could, not a care in the world. Weird huh? Shake and Peanut were always with me, they growled at anyone who got close but they were friendly just like me. I think all my pups inherited something from me, Shake my paranoia, Peanut my distrust of strangers, Freeway my warrior mentality, Amigo my stubbornness and Hamburger my appreciation for life and living in the now. But I inherited something much more from all of them, happiness and friendship, unconditional love and loyalty. I firmly believe that human life is much happier with a mutt in it. My pups are all in Dog Heaven but their lives and memories are stamped on my heart for the rest of mine.