Volume 2- Hobo

As much as we did not set out to have six dogs after we had two, Nikki and Xena, we did not set out to have three. Hobo was a bit of a fluke. We had gone to the Humane Society to look at the dogs and saw Hobo and with little discussion or hesitation we took him. It's not just because he is a big collie shepherd mix. He is. It was not because he had been given up for adoption at the age of ten, though he was. It's not because he is the most gentle of dogs, though he is this as well. Hobo was a dog from my youth. When I was about ten years old we were living in Florida in a new sub-division partially on the water. I had a collie shepherd mix- the most loyal and best companion dog a boy could have, his name was Hobo.

My Mom named him-naming pets was always her job.

One day Hobo went missing and I was devastated. I went about calling out to him - he had never failed to answer. I knew, just knew I would find him. Where we were bordered on a lot of undeveloped area and in Florida undeveloped land meant rattlesnakes. His being bit was my greatest fear. For days I searched and called out. At night I cried.

On about the third day I was walking the seawall around the development. The tide was low and I spotted something I knew immediately to be Hobo, my lost dog. I knew immediately that he was dead. Without thinking how I would get back up I jumped from the seawall into the water and cradled Hobo's head. And cried. I noticed a rope tied around his neck. We never tied him up- we never had to. I pulled on the rope and it barely budged. I pulled harder and eventually found the other end tied to a concrete block. Someone had tied a rope to his neck and threw him and a concrete block into the water to drown.

Though as I grew old I did not think of him often, I never forgot him. And one day, at a Humane Society kennel, now himself ten years old, Hobo and I were reunited. He is thirteen now. I sometimes feel as though he has been with me my whole life. I did not know why we had gone that day to the Humane Society but today I believe that I was meant to go- to reunite with my lost friend.