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He Was Just a Mongrel

© Helen Dowd

He was just a mongrel, a cast-off, the offspring of a tramp, but he was a dog that could do--almost anything. He never went to obedience school. He wasn't discovered by Hollywood. He didn't receive FAME in Ripley's Believe It Or Not. No. The only fame Scruffy received was from his family--us, and from all the children and grownups who saw his performance.

Scruffy was born on Friday, the thirteenth of September, the last in the litter, the runt, the thirteenth. He was unwanted by his mother, and his siblings did their best to crowd him out. Scrawny and pathetic in appearance, he looked as if he wouldn't survive until his eyes were open. In fact, the owners of the mother dog had thought of drowning him. But when I saw him, I knew I wanted him, I knew he was the pup I had been looking for. To me, the nondescript, unwanted runt was the pick of the litter. And choosing a name was easy: he was SCRUFFY. No other name would have suited him.

A mongrel Scruffy may have been, a thirteenth, a runt, but he was no moron. In the trick department he could roll over, speak, jump through a hoop, say his prayers, count on command, or do any number of other tricks, including retrieving any article I suggested, even if I lined up thirteen items. He never made a mistake.

Scruffy, the little brown terrier-type pup, wore his personality in his tail. His was straggly, and far too long for the rest of him. At first I wondered about having it docked. But as time went on I was glad I had decided to let him keep it. His tail was like a compass, or possibly a road map. He had a different tail-wag for every part of his life, from waving it uncertainly when he met a stranger, to almost wagging his whole hind end off whenever he greeted a friend, or a member of the family. And he had a special kind of tail-wag for animals of nature, especially for squirrels--for which he had some strange obsession.

Scruffy became "famous" the day one of the children asked if he could take the dog to school for "show and tell".

"Show and tell?" I asked. "Dogs can't go into school."

But that is exactly what happened. David and I took Scruffy to school. David was in a "special" class, and the teacher thought that a dog might give some stimulation to some of the problem children in the class. (David was not one of them.) The teacher was right about giving stimulation. David proudly introduced his dog, and then sat down on the floor with the twenty other children. I put Scruffy through his paces. First, I told him to find David. David made no gestures. He sat with quiet expectation, knowing that his dog would not disappoint him. He didn't. Scruffy, as if pretending he was searching for the right little boy went around sniffing all the children, much to the delight of the class. When he came to David, he skipped over him, making sure that he sniffed all the other children first. Then with a burst of exuberance, he pounced on David. This sent the whole class into gales of laughter.

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