Tag Archives: Sabol the Puppy

local news

Sabol the Puppy: ruthless killer!

Sabol the Puppy has become a cherished member of my family but I admit to being a little remiss in reporting on her progress since she joined me in September 2024.

I have something of interest to report. Here goes.

Sabol loves to spend time outside. She mastered the doggie door immediately after moving in with me. In and out, in and out! It’s constant. Rainfall? Pffftt! She likes the rain, too … unlike Toby the Puppy, who hated water, unless it was for his bath.

Here’s what happened last night that deserves a brief comment. I was away from home for a while during the evening attending a city council meeting in another community; I was on assignment for my part-time gig as a freelance reporter.

I kept the back door open for Sabol to use at her pleasure. She long ago discovered some rodent activity near the back of the yard. She’s always back there sniffing around where the mice come into the yard. What’s more, I always wondered what my Chihuahua mix pooch, who’s now around 7 years old, would do if she ever caught one.

I got my answer last night when I returned home from my reporting assignment. She found a rodent, mauled it viciously, killed it deader ‘n dead … and brought it into the house!

So help me, I didn’t think she had that instinct in her. I am glad to know I was mistaken about her.

As my sis told me, “She’s a cat in puppy’s clothing.”

local news

Dogs are in fact ‘loved ones’

I saw a social media post that declared, “Losing a dog is almost as bad as losing a loved one.”

Hah! “Almost as bad”? I beg to differ. Losing a dog is just like losing a loved one. At least that’s the case in my house.

I live in North Texas and am the parent of an energetic 6-year-old Chihuahua mix named Sabol,  Sabol joined my family right after I returned from an overseas vacation in September 2024. We met at a park in Princeton and fell in love with each other immediately.

You see, Sabol was living with a woman who is in failing health and her daughter sought to find a new home for the puppy. That’s when I came along. Sabol took the place of another Chihuahua mix pooch I lost in December 2023 to cancer. I wrote extensively about Toby the Puppy over the nine years he brought joy to my household. I lost Toby the same year cancer claimed my bride of 51 years. Indeed, Toby’s passing provided a symbolic bookend to the worst year of my life. I said farewell to Kathy Anne near the beginning of 2023 and I said the same to Toby the Puppy near the end of that horrific year.

I won’t equate the losses. I won’t say that losing Toby was the same as losing Kathy Anne. I will say, though, that letting Toby go after his battle with cancer became too much for him hurt just like “losing a loved one.” I loved Toby very much.

And I love Sabol just as much.

I long ago ceased referring to myself as a “pet owner.” I am a proud “pet parent,.” And like any parent can fathom, losing a loving furry baby brings plenty of pain.

local news

Two pups, two personalities

I have had two cherished pooches in my life … one was Toby the Puppy, the other is Sabol, who I also refer to as “puppy.”

They’re both Chihuahua-mix puppies. I lost Toby to cancer in December2023. They have similar coloration. Both are about the same size, although Sabol is a bit pudgier than Toby.

That, however, is where the similarity ends. Toby hated water. That included lawn sprinklers and rainfall. He was good with a bath, though. Sabol? She loves to play in the rain. She rolls around in the mud.

Here’s another difference, which is the point of this blog post. Toby didn’t like loud noises, such as the one the lawmower makes. Sabol seems to relish the sound.

This morning I mowed my back lawn. Whereas Toby would have run like a thief from the sound, Sabol today followed me around the yard barking joyfully at the rumbling Craftsman machine. I had to shoo her away a couple of times when she got too close to it for my comfort.

Sabol didn’t interfere with my lawn-cutting chore. She was just, um, a presence who felt as if she had to make herself known to me while I was in the middle of an important task.

Understand this about Sabol. She joined my family in September 2024, after I had put the lawnmower up for the winter. The sound of the machine was new to her. The lawnmowing session was the first of this grass-growing season for me.

What will I do in the future when it’s time to fire up the lawnmower? I likely will have to keep Sabol restricted indoors while I finish the job. I’m tellin’ ya, puppies are as unpredictable as kids.

local news

Pet relief centers?

PORTLAND, Ore — I need to get out more, but I have known that for a long time as it is.

I arrived this afternoon at Portland International Airport, a newly redesigned, expanded and vastly improved airport, I should add.

On my way from the jetliner to where I would pick up my rental car, I noticed signs I hadn’t seen before. They pointed passengers to “pet relief stations.”

I have been noticing more air travelers boarding jetliners with dogs and cats. Mostly dogs, however. What I had never seen before today were these stations where Fido can “relieve himself or herself” after spending hours on a jetliner.

Wow! Have we come a long way in this country to elevating the status of our pets … or what?

Hey, I am totally OK with it … given that I consider my new puppy, Sabol, to be part of my family.

local news

No pairing of these words

High Plains Blogger readers likely know already of the word-pairing I announced long ago when I declared I never would write the words “President” and “Trump” consecutively … and please note that I avoided doing so in this sentence.

Here’s another pair of words you won’t see from me when referring to pets that are part of my family. They are “pet” and “owner.”

Here’s the deal. Pets, be the cats or dogs, become members of my family. Therefore, I don’t “own” them any more than I own my sons. My bride, Kathy Anne, and I brought two baby boys into this world in the 1970s and they have grown into the two finest men I know. I don’t own either of ’em.

Therefore, I don’t own Sabol, the pooch who joined my family when I returned from vacation in September. She is the second puppy who became a member of my family. I lost Toby the Puppy in December 2023 to illness. Then, Sabol came along and, oh brother, she is a fantastic addition to my household.

I have two grandpuppies, Ryder and Dak, and two grandkitties, Macy and Marlowe. Obviously, I don’t own the puppies, either, as they live with my son, my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter. Macy and Marlowe moved in with me when my other son arrived in the spring of 2023.

My bride and I considered ourselves to be more drawn to cats than dogs for many years. We had many cats in our home over the 51-year span of our marriage. We had two of them in Amarillo; we had a calico who joined us in Portland in 1982, then moved with us to Beaumont and then to Amarillo. We were parents to several kitties prior to the calico in Portland.

We tried parenting a couple of pooches during all those years, but they didn’t work out.

Am I being sappy with this blog message about how I use the English language? Sure, I am. So what? Just live with it.

Don’t ever expect to me say I “own” a furry family member.