The rest of the family calls him Oakley.  I call him Boola.  He answers to me with that handle, and he calls me Dude when he talks to me.  We get along famously.  He’s really Bryce’s dog, and they definitely have a close friendship.  But for some reason, he hangs around me.  I wouldn’t want to call him a one-man dog around the family, just to keep tension out of the air, but that’s about what he is.

He’s getting on in age, but back in his day he had an incredible run time.  I once saw him follow me on the four-wheeler for four solid miles at a steady 18 m.p.h.  We got back on the last 500 feet, and I eased on up to his top speed of 21 m.p.h. and he ramped it up right beside me.  Nowadays, though, he mostly holds down his bed in a nook right by our bedroom.  He’s had his day in the sun and deserves some easy down time.  I only hope my children will have the same consideration for me when I get on in age. 

He’s got his quirks, just like I have mine.  We’ve got our things the same about us though.  He has two steel rods to hold a shattered leg together.  I have a steel plate to hold a shattered collarbone together.  He likes ice cream and chocolate sauce; so do I.  He’s made me mad enough to see red a couple of times, but I’ll let those times go, as the good times have been a dozen to one of the bad times.

His leg is what interests me.  He was driven over when a small pup, and his left hind leg was shattered.  We had him in to the vet and they put the two aforementioned rods in to help stabilize things.  The vet told us he was right in the middle of his prime growing time as a pup, and the two weeks that it took the bone to get sticky and start mending itself would be how much shorter that leg was from his others. 

That leg is two inches shorter. 

But there is something else that interests me about his leg.  Since it is that much shorter, you would think he wouldn’t bother with walking on it.  He does though.  And he accomplishes walking by dragging his good leg so his bad one can reach the ground.

Methinks that if humanity, as a rule, would take his example and drag its good leg so the bad leg could reach the ground, a lot could be gained.