Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2006 23:21:30 -0700 (PDT) From: ron Subject: Sock He was a Saint Bernard about two years. He was like a buddy to me. We had so much fun together when I was at home. Yeah, he was a big dog, clumsy, funny and very playful. He had that typical beige background color of a Saint Bernard. He had brown spots here and there all over his furry body. Around his right eye was a one of those big brown spots. He looked like someone had socked him in the eye. That is how he got his name. These great warm summer days make me think back on my teen years. Amazing how we seem to recall those years as some of the best years of our lives. I often think about how much fun I had during the summer break at home on the farm. We did not have much connection to the city life so we did not know what we were missing out on. Sometimes life is just better that way. When I was born my family had a big dairy farm. By the time I got to be a teen, things had been geared way back with the animals. Only some chickens, a couple calves, a couple mare work horses, some outdoor cats and of course we always had dogs. My sister seemed to be the driving force to keep us in animals. We ended up with quite a few interesting ?pets? on the farm. She even brought home a spider monkey which kept us laughing into tears every day for a few years. I had two ?pet? Raccoons that I raised from tiny babies. I learned that Raccoons are nocturnal after a month of keeping mom awake at night. You need to consider that if you ever think you might want to have one around the house. The Raccoons are lucky to have survived the wrath of mom and I got out of that one still in one piece. The entire family was thankful when the Raccoons grew up after about six months. As it turned fall they headed out to live their own life. I had just turned 15 when my sister brought sock home. We had a very big back yard ? it was more like a five acre field that was a well kept lawn. Then there was the farm. I am a shorts guy. As far back as I can recall I love to wear shorts in the summer time. No shirt or shoes either. Sock was not tied up or caged up. We lived on a dirt road with very little traffic so our dogs were able to roam at will. I was usually outdoors around 9 am after breakfast. Mom liked to keep the house clean so the five boys stayed outdoors all day long unless the weather really got bad. That was just fine with us because we did not even want to think of how boring it would be to stay indoors all day long. Sock was always happy to see me as I stepped out the door in the morning. He absolutely loved to play. He acted more like a three month old pup instead of a two year dog. He just did not seem to grow up. He would jump up and knock me down and then he would fall over being so clumsy. The two of us would wrestle. I would get my hands in his heavy fur to get some control over him so that he would not get the best of me. He had the most beautiful soft fur one could imagine. It was softer than a blanket and so cozy. Sometimes we would wear each other out and just take a nap somewhere in the shade. He sure made for a great blanket and pillow. He seemed to love the closeness and so did I. Sometimes I would get on my hands and knees and wrestle with Sock. In that position sock was actually taller than me. I felt kinda dominated by his size when we wrestled but it never worried me or scared me. I knew him well and that he would never harm me. We were way too understanding and respectful of each other. Our wrestling was always just a fun game and he knew it and loved it. One day we were wrestling quite intensely. He seemed to be a little more challenging to me than before. He was wearing me out quickly by knocking me down so many times. So I just decided that the match would be taken to his level and got on my hands and knees again. I noticed that he would kinda grab me with his front paws and pull me toward him. I would roll on the ground to escape his grip. He would grab my leg with his paws and try to control me. I quickly discovered he had some hidden strength that I did not realize. I thought that it was nothing more than an advanced stage of our wrestling whereas he wanted to show me that he had more control of me. I had seen dogs and other farm animals breed before but did not give it much thought. I knew absolutely nothing about how people and dogs could have a little private fun. I was a total na