Puppy Power
(Marco’s Take of “Mascot”)
Dear Juan,
I’m writing this letter at my new post, Station 51. You should see this place, brother; it’s brand new, brick and, surprise, no pole! Couldn’t have one as it is only one story. The dorm, where we sleep, is set up with four foot brick dividers between every two cots, giving you some privacy, much better than the old style.
And the kitchen! State of the art except we don’t have one of those newfangled microwave ovens. Those things scare me, all that radiation. I guess I’ve seen too many of Chet’s old horror movies, the ones about mutant creatures caused by radiation. They put in double ovens and a full size refrigerator freezer, better than that old clunker we had at our old station.
Of course, you know Captain Hammer is here. Well, he’s got his hands full with Johnny Gage, one of the two paramedics. We went on this MVA and the victim is a woman, very pretty. She’s got this rat dog that she cons Johnny into taking care of. He’s such a sucker!
Except Romeo can’t take the mutt home. There’s a “no pet” clause at his apartment building. And the dog is a yapper so he wouldn’t be able to hide him like we did with that cat you brought home when we were kids.
Now Johnny is a man of his word so he can’t take the dog to the shelter. He even tried to con his paramedic partner, Roy DeSoto, into helping. Roy is no fool! He made this lame excuse about his two kids and his own dog making mincemeat of Bonnie. That’s the dog’s name.
So here we are, leaving the poor dog tied up in the kitchen while we’re on a call, only she gets loose and trashes Roy’s cot. I felt sorry for Roy but it was funny as hell watching Johnny apologizing and still trying to get someone to take the little monster.
Poor Johnny! He’s been sleeping in this old VW camper in the back of the station for three solid days, working overtime as well. Only I doubt if he’s getting much in the way of sleep. That camper stinks to high heaven! I’m not even sure who it belongs to.
Oh, and get this, the little mutt? Turns out she’s worth at least $8,000. Seems she has all these ribbons and awards. Go figure. And, to top it off, when the owner shows up, Bonnie doesn’t want to leave Johnny. Chet was smarting off about how all the women like Gage, especially the dogs. Roy calls it his fatal charm. Except it’s more joke than truth. Well, that might be a little cruel. But you know how Cousin Tito could attract the women; only once they got to know him they’d lose interest? That’s Johnny! He just can’t keep a girlfriend.
Bonnie’s owner promised Johnny a puppy from Bonnie’s first litter. I think that’s an empty promise and he won’t ever see her again. I mean, wouldn’t the puppies of a champion dog be worth a lot of money also? Well, we’ll see what happens.
I’ll write more later. Behave yourself at college or Mama will come to visit!
Love,
Marco
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Author's note: This is one of a sometime continuing series of Marco’s letters to his relatives. How continuing will depend on the response of the readers, so if you like this one and “Draggin’ the Line”, let me know. Or, if you don’t like them, ditto!
Stories By Lizabeth Guest Dispatchers
