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This is a story of one of those very best friends that came along and played a very large part in our lives. It wasn?t only mine and moms, but Don and Graig?s too.
We can all reflect back and remember very special things in our lives that Tuggles was a part of. As I look back, I am so sure Tuggles was had a part in our lives in another world.
About 1960, we were operating a Mobile Oil service station on 6th West and Main street in Vernal. We had a good friend and customer named Art Boren. He owned a large heard of sheep and had a Mexican herder named Sabino.
One afternoon Sabino drove up to the pump for gasoline and while I was filling his tank I noticed an big old Shaggy Dog in the back of the truck. I reached over and began petting him while he sort of just leaned into the petting. Well, I probably petted him more than I needed to, but I just sort of took a liking to that dog. I finished filling the truck and gave him one morepet while saying a few more words to him and walked back into the sale room where Sabino was waiting and told him that I would sure like to have that Old Shaggy Dog! ?si,? said Sabino. ?He ees a good dog, very smart.? ?what will you take for him? I asked. ?oh, need him bad? he replied. With that Sabino turned to leave. I followed him outside and watched him drive away with that wonderful old dog. As Sabino stopped for the traffic light at the highway intersection that old dog turned and looked back at me. I liked that!
Its hard to know what happened after that because when Sabino left the station I was sure that there was no way Sabino would let go of that dog. Then one afternoon, probably a couple of weeks later,Sabino pulled up to the side of the station, got out of his truck and walked to the back of it. He climed up on the truck, untied a short rope from the rack of the truck just as I was walking up to see what he was doing. He handed me one end of the rope and said ?Here eez your dog.?
Speachless, I took the rope in my hand. The Old Dog jumped down off the truck, turned and rose up on me and began to give me them sloppy kisses all over my face. Sobino stood and grinned, then said, ?Si, he likes you purty goood I theenk.? With that Sabino merely drove away.
I loaded the old dog onto my truck and headed for home. As I drove into the driveway and came to a stop, the old dog leaped out of the truck and ran around the house and down to the gate where the sheep were coralled and immediately began to let them know that he was the new boss around here. And you know, after that day when ever we were coming home or leaving to go somewhere he would do the same thing as if to let us know that this was what he was there for.
Since the day I brought him home he repeatedly made his run for the gate then turn and run around the house as if thoroughly enjoying himself. From day one this dog knew he was home, and so it was for the next nineteen grand years.
These old shaggy dogs are a devoted and loyal friend. It is said that there love and devotion is unconditional, faltz, I know that they expect love in return and the more love they receive the more love that is again returned. For anybody that does not know and understand dogs there is no explanation, but those that do, no explanation nessessary.
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