Ollie the Wonder Dog

 

I would like to tell you about my second dog, Ollie.

We got Ollie in 1971, when I was 7 years old. (I am sixty now, not that that is relevant). He was an 8 month old St Bernard/Old English Sheepdog mix, white and charcoal grey, and just gorgeous...

We lived on Mission Hill in Roxbury, Massachusetts at that time, then a year later, moved to North Cambridge, MA, and eventually to Cambridgeport. Ollie moved with us every time. He was my velcro dog. He went with me everywhere. We wandered the neighborhoods, went to the candy stores, he used to walk me to and from school every day, although he didn’t just wait for me at the schoolyard, he would do his doggy thing until his internal clock said it was time for school to let out.

When I was 12, Ollie disappeared. We looked and looked, advertised, but we just couldn’t find him. Ten months later, an emaciated, filthy, tired, matted up dog turned up at our door. The pads of his feet were raw, and we figured out that he had probably been stolen and escaped and had a very long trek to get back him, but come back home he did, and from then on was known as Ollie the Wonder Dog.

Ollie died when I was 19. I still miss him and always will. He was one of those dogs of a lifetime that you just never forget. He was my buddy, my best friend, my soul mate. He was Ollie the Wonder Dog.