* Trotter: A Wagger's Tale for Children (of all ages)

(work in progress)

Basil (left) and Trotter (2001-2007)

Trotter and Nemo (2007- present)

Hi! 


My name is Trotter.  

Well, actually, it was "Otter" but my  "Person" (Paul)  didn't like it when he got me from the humane society ten years ago, so he changed it to "Trotter."  

Sounds about the same. 


 I guess my previous Person thought I looked like an otter when I was a pup, because every smidgeon of me (lips, nose, eyes, except for two gloves and a bib) is brown with red tint.

Trotter, Nemo and Solstice (2010-present)

Anyway, I came to live with Paul when I was five. He has two acres on a hill in Vermont.


Oh, I forgot to tell you, my first Person was a nurse and I lived with her in an apartment.


She got in a car accident and I escaped through the car window and roamed for two months.  When they found me, my Person was still in the hospital and unable to take care of me, so I was put up for adoption.


What's "adoption"?

My Person-Paul, with Oreo, who I never met.

But nobody wanted me. 

My Nurse-Person called  the humane society week after week for months to see if I had been adopted, hoping I'd find a home.

Then my Paul-Person came to the humane society in Woodstock,  looked me in the eyes and said, "That dog's for me."

He had just had to "put down" his previous dog, a Dalmatian, Oreo, at thirteen and a half years old, two days before he met me. 


I  don't know what "put-down" means, but Oreo wasn't with him any more.  


Paul-Person couldn't live without a dog, so he high-tailed it to the humane society and found me.

Moby Dee

I've been with him ever since.


There was a cat here when I came, named Moby Dee.  She stayed for eight years. Then she went away.  Paul says she was over twenty years old.

I'm about to turn  fifteen (15!)  years old. (That's 105  Person years!)

What's "years"?

And that's why I'm writing this.  


My Person thinks it's amazing that I'm still with him.  


Why would I leave?  


Where would I go?

He says the vet  says I've had a heart murmur for four years and shouldn't still be here.

What's "here"?

Basil didn't have as much hair as I do to keep warm.

About  nine  years ago, right after I came to Paul's, my Person adopted another Dalmatian, Basil. 


I loved Basil.  


He was nine years old when he came to Person-Paul's.  


He stayed for five years, till he was fourteen---that's 98 Person years. 

Basil and myself in the kennel, which has a swinging door to get back into the house. Brrrrrr! 

Then he went away.

He stopped moving and couldn't get up.

Paul was very sad. 


I was sad too.


I was so sad that I stopped eating and started to limp.

Within a day Paul went to the humane society again  (what a great place!) which had moved to Brownsville  and got Nemo, a Bassett Hound. 

I fell in love with Nemo! 


I started jumping and playing and rolling around.  


Now I eat like a horse.

Love at first kiss!

A year ago, I was chasing Nemo around the couch and I tore my ACL ( a ligament in my leg) . 


Person Paul brought me to the vet and she said I was too old for surgery.  

What's "surgery"?

What's "old" ?

Now I take steroids, and I can still run, but my back legs are bent a little.

Six month's ago Person Paul got a kitten named Solstice. 

Solstice plays with Nemo's nose!

She is fun for Nemo.  I like her, but not the way Nemo does.  


He plays with her.

We are all one big  happy pack.

The Pack minus the Person

Some day I am going to die.  That's what I heard the vet say. 

What's "die"? 

The vet says, I'm amazing.

All I know is that my next meal is coming soon, in twelve hours.

What's "hours"?

Paul looks at me some times and says, 


"I love you, Trotter"

I know what that word means.