Three Word Wednesday - Shep

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 Three Word Wednesday - Shep

Prompts:  

Bitter, adjective: Having a sharp, pungent taste or smell; not sweet; (of people or their feelings or behavior) angry, hurt, or resentful because of one's bad experiences or a sense of unjust treatment; (of a conflict, argument, or opponent) full of anger and acrimony; (often used for emphasis) painful or unpleasant to accept or contemplate; (of wind, cold, or weather) intensely cold.

Manipulate, verb: Handle or control (a tool, mechanism, etc.), typically in a skillful manner; alter, edit, or move (text or data) on a computer; examine or treat (a part of the body) by feeling or moving it with the hand; control or influence (a person or situation) cleverly, unfairly, or unscrupulously; alter (data) or present (statistics) so as to mislead.

Tight, adjective: Fixed, fastened, or closed firmly; hard to move, undo, or open; (of clothes or shoes) close-fitting, uncomfortably so; (of a grip) very firm so as not to let go; (of a formation or a group of people or things) closely or densely packed together; (of a community or other group of people) having close relations; secretive; (of appearance or manner) tense, irritated, or angry; (of a rule, policy, or form of control) strictly imposed; (of an area or space) having or allowing little room for maneuver.

                                                                          Shep

           When my mom and dad were first married, my dad took a job as an apprentice train machinist and had to work night shifts. This left my young mom all alone, something my dad wasn’t comfortable with. He spoke to a buddy at work about getting a dog and that man offered him a collie pup eight weeks old named Shep. Shep was called that because he shepherd the man’s children back to their parents.

          My mother knew on some level she was manipulated as my dad loved animals and money was tight, but she also fell in love with Shep and felt safe with him around. He protected his pack and would not let anyone in the house, or near my mother and then my sisters and other siblings after they were born.

          One day when my oldest sister was three years old and my other sister one, they played on the front porch of my parent’s house. My mom didn't want them to wake my dad up, as he slept days. My mother sat nearby darning my dad’s socks. 

        My second oldest sister grew cold and my mother wanted to take her in the house, but she cried wanting to play with her sister. My mom told the dog to guard which the dog had done before and the children never got by him. My mother then went into the house.  My mom, mere seconds in the house to grab sweaters, heard the sounds, first of a whoosh of air from truck brakes, then a bitter cry of Nooooooooooooo!!

       A second later even as her feet moved towards the door she heard a dog yelp and then the children’s cries. As her mind went to recriminations that she should never have left the children alone for a moment, she burst through her front door. There she saw Shep on the front lawn, his back end, twisted, bent and bleeding. Shep however still crawled to my sisters and put his broken battered body in front of them as the truck driver bent over them to see if they were harmed.

          Seeing my mother the truck driver cried, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I shut my eyes for a moment and veered off the road. The dog saved them. He pulled those little girls of yours out of the way.”

          My mother bent over Shep tears in her eyes. By this time my dad had heard all and woken up from his sleep. He strode outside and saw what had happened. He was angry and yelled at the truck driver as he ran to the dog and his children. The truck driver left abruptly. 

         My dad checked over their small bodies and then he checked Shep’s injuries. He wrapped Shep in a blanket and took him to the vet only to be told the dog had to be put down. Shep's left back leg was severed and it would be in a pain from an injured right one. My dad loved this dog and after it had saved his daughters, he was not about to put this animal down, so he begged the vet for any hope. The vet said it was a long shot but my dad could take it to the new veterinary college in Guelph and see what they could do.

          My Dad drove the two hours to the college and begged them to save his dog. The college came through amputating part of Shep’s left leg, putting pins in both his left and his right hip and fixing internal injuries. Shep came through the complicated operations and somehow my dad raised the thousands of dollars to save him paying in installments for a year. 

         Shep still ran nearly as fast as he did on three legs, as he had on four. He never whined or complained about his injury. He wore woolen socks and boots knitted by my mother in the winter, which kept his pain away that the cold caused. He played with and protected not only my older sisters, but four other children that came along. Wherever we went Shep would follow in our childhood adventures. 

        Yearly check-ups with the vet yielded nothing but amazement that this animal wasn't in a pain still lived and was incredibly happy with us, as we were with him. He didn't seem to suffer any other after effects from his inuries. After seventeen years of playing with us and being part of the family Shep grew ill and passed away, but to us his family, he was one of the kids and the best dog we ever had. 

©Sheilagh Lee November 20, 2013