CoCo, the Wonder Dog

As a child, I had many pets. I mostly had dogs while I was growing up. I never had a cat until many years later.

My first dog was a chihuahua and I named him Tiny Tim. He was a great dog. I had a little red wagon and Tiny Tim, me and my wagon would play all day.

I would take a wet cloth and drape it over the rear of my wagon, then I’d run around the yard, watching the cloth fly in the wind as I ran. Tiny Tim would always run up and grab the cloth and run off with it, causing me great consternation. I would have to stop running with the little red wagon and go chase Tiny Tim down to get my cloth back.

We did this all day in the yard and I loved Tiny Tim very much.

The sad end to this story about Tiny Tim is how he died.

One day, a bunch of dogs attacked Tiny Tim under the house next door to mine. I could hear all of the commotion, but they were under the house fighting and plus I was very young.

It was a horrible memory that I carry with me today about the demise of my first love, Tiny Tim.

A few years later, I got another dog. His name was buddy.

I never kept my dogs on a leash or locked up. They just stayed around my house because they loved the environment. I never had a dog run off on me.

It’s been many years and I don’t remember what happened to Buddy, but it was not as bad as Tiny Tim so I guess he just died from old age.

My grandmother used to play cards with her friends every weekend until the wee hours of the morning. One late night, she came home with a fluffy, brown puppy for me.

I was elated.

I named him Tiger. He was a mixed breed with curly brown, beautiful fur.

I had Tiger for a while then something very bad happened to him.

One day, I was in the front yard and Tiger ran out into the street.

A car came by and ran him over.

I remember seeing Tiger spin and flip under the car as it passed. The car never stopped.

I just fell to my knees and began to cry.

Tiger struggled to get up. He began to hobble towards me.

After a while, he made it to my lap. He was pretty hurt.

He died in my arms that day.

He had struggled to crawl and limp just enough to make it to me before he died. Just writing this brings a tear to my eyes.

That was a hard day in my life. Seeing my dog run over and having it crawl to die in my arms is a memory I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy.

The guy who ran over my dog lived on the next street over and he never apologized or said anything about it. He was older than me and I swore that one day I would get him back for what he did. I never had the chance for revenge, but if I see him in the afterlife, he will be sorry for what he did. I can guarantee you that.

The last memory I have of Tiger is my uncle grabbing Tiger by the tail and carrying him to the back yard to bury him. I went inside and cried my eyes out for a long time.

I didn’t get any more dogs after that. I was getting to be a teenager and running around with my friends all of the time now.

Many years later, I was living in Houston now and had a small studio apartment when I got a kitten.

I named her Kitty Cat and I loved that cat a lot.

I put a small opening in the window by my futon so she could come and go outside as she pleased.

She would run around all day outside and come home at night to sleep with me.

This was a great arrangement until one day when I found her behind the couch with a bunch of kittens of her own.

I never got her fixed and now I had to find homes for all of these kittens.

I finally did and then I moved to a different neighborhood.

I took Kitty Cat with me, but she ran off with the neighborhood cats and I never saw her again.

Over the years, I had other pets also.

Once I had some small cute mice in an aquarium. Then my friends caught a small constrictor snake at the waterpark.

The next thing I know is that they are feeding my mice to the snake.

So now I had a snake.

I kept the snake for a long time and we had a lot of fun scaring people with it.

Then one day, I let it go.

Another time, I had a good sized lizard. It was vicious. It would grab live mice and smash them against the inside of the aquarium until they were dead, then it would swallow them whole.

It was gross to watch and there would be blood on the glass.

I gave the lizard away.

For a while, we had a pet raccoon at the waterpark. We named him Dude.

But the older he got, the meaner he got until we finally had to get rid of him because he was biting people.

At one time, I even had a tarantula.

I am definitely scared of large spiders, but at the same time, I’m fascinated by them.

I didn’t keep the tarantula very long though.

After all of these different pets, I went for many years without any.

Then in 2010, both of my parents died two months apart.

After that, I decided to get a dog that I had always wanted; a miniature doberman pinscher.

I began my search online for one in Houston, but couldn’t find one.

Finally, I found one that was in Arkansas, but I wasn’t about to buy it and have it flown to Houston.

I didn’t want the dog traumatized by a plane flight.

Then the guy tells me that he is driving to Houston soon.

I was excited and made arrangements to purchased the little puppy min pin.

The day finally came and my puppy was in Houston.

I drove to pick her up and the second I held her I knew it was $400 well spent.

They cost so much because of the trimming of the ears, tail and dew claws.

I had decided to name her VooDoo.

I’m from Louisiana and New Orleans has a big history with VooDoo, and I thought it would be a cool name for a dog.

But when I got her home, I had second thoughts.

I thought to myself, “What if she gets away and I have to go around yelling for her?”.

I didn’t want to have to yell VooDoo at the top of my lungs in my Condo Complex so I decided to call her CoCo.

She has been my little partner in crime.

She’s great to ride around with as my Shotgun passenger.

She sleeps with me every night and jumps for joy when I return home.

She is so cute when she crawls under the covers at night to snuggle.

I wanted to teach her some tricks but never got around to it.

I did teach her to attack people.

When I say “Get ’em”, she jumps up and runs over, barking and making a large commotion. She never bites anyone but her attacks are very cute and noisy.

I also taught he patience.

I can hold a treat right in front of her face and she will wait patiently until I say “Good girl” and give her the treat.

She’s funny to watch as she waits because she will turn her head away and lick her lips as she waits.

She’s very good at waiting patiently for her treats.

During the winter, she likes standing in front of the fire in the fireplace.

I enjoy taking holiday photos of her and sending them to friends and posting on Facebook.

She’s probably saying, “Get this shit off of me!”, lol.

Here she is posing with Holiday Charlie Brown.

Here she is with a Santa Claus hat on. This Saturday, my vet is having a Santa show up so the pet owners can get a photo with Santa and their pets. I was the first one to sign up.