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Stray to Stay

Bowie - the legend

By Kylie BestPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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When people ask me where I got my dog, Bowie, I always end up telling the full story. How could I not? It was so random but so perfect, we were definitely meant to find one another. To this day, he’s my best friend and we are always on the same page. Sometimes I think he’s me, only in dog form.

A few years ago, I was working for Habitat for Humanity in a college town here in Texas. Obviously, plots were cheaper on the run-down side of town, and we were close to some neighborhoods that were somewhat questionable. One morning before the volunteers arrived, I went to this tiny gas-station on the corner. It had all but two pumps and was an all dirt layout. Real fancy, you know? I was minding my own business, getting gas and grabbing a few bags of ice when this large dog started approaching me. Coloring of a German Shepherd, but mixed with a Lab (probably a mut), I was a little skeptical. Turned out, he was really sweet and just wanted some snacks. He didn’t have a collar on, but he was hanging around the door in a way that made me think he was waiting for his owner. I ended up snapping a picture of him because he was so cute and just the sweetest boy.

I drove away sad, wishing that some people wouldn’t bother getting pets that didn’t really devote their time to it, or who didn’t have the funds for it for that matter. I went back to work and got on with my life… for three months. Three months! Isn’t that crazy? Anyway, three months later we ended up building a house on a plot in the neighborhood where that gas station was that I first spotted Bowie. Every morning when I would get the construction site ready for volunteers, I would watch him make his rounds around the neighborhood. He was smart. He would walk the neighborhood kids to the school bus, in hopes that they would give him some of their breakfast pop-tarts. After the bus pulled away, he would mosey on over to the gas station to see who was going to cave and give him some breakfast tacos. Next, he would make his way over to me, where I always had a can of wet dog food (yeah, the good stuff) waiting for him.

We did this for about two months, our own little routine. At the time I had another dog, a beagle. She was about ten years old, and I decided to bring her out to test how they would get along. Obviously they hit it off, so I decided to try and get him in my car. One day, I was out at the site alone and somehow managed to get him into my small Corolla. I became nervous that he was someone’s dog, so I let him go that day. I was disappointed that I chose to do that, clearly. He was all I could think about, and I felt like he was already my dog, from the first time I had met him.

Finally one day, I drove up to the same construction site, where we only had a couple more weekends at. It was lunch time and my Head of Construction asked if I could come look at the work truck. I did, and low and behold - my future dog in the backseat! I immediately took him to the vet to scan for a chip (obviously none), and to have an overall check up. After mild heartworm treatments and a neutering, I had a second dog...and 80 pound dog!

I remember the first bath he got when he finally got to come home. The whole shower was covered in layers of mud, and he looked like a completely different dog. Initially, I wanted to name the next dog I had Ziggy, from Ziggy Stardust, but it didn’t fit his mellow and chill personality, so I ended up going with Bowie. He also has some scars, probably from living on his own for so long (they guessed he was already around three years old), so the name Scar also crossed my mind. It didn’t feel right, know what I mean? Just like the feeling I had when I first saw him, I just knew Bowie was his name.

While my other dog, Millie the Beagle, was another love of my life and a long time companion (I ended up having her for 13 years), the experience wasn’t quite the same. I sought out to have a Beagle and we bonded, because she was my dog. But she wasn’t like Bowie, she wasn’t rescued. To this day, I feel the appreciation in his soul and see the thankfulness in his eyes. I’m his person, and I took him in when no one else would. He’s loyal to a fault and will probably be by my side (or under my feet) until his time on Earth has come to an end. For that, I’m thankful too.

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