Champ

Good day to you all. This will be the last entry in the series of my freakish pet posts. It was a good run, but really I just need to get some new material. Enjoy...

Champ was the most recent and goofiest dog we had. He was the happiest dog I knew, and loved jumping on people and chasing things. He always seemed to have a grin on his face, if you can imagine a grinning dog.

Like I said, Champ liked to jump on people and chase things. He was also fond of riding in our golf cart, which we had at our house for yard work purposes. His love of people, chasing things, and golf carts did not mix well with the golf course that was near our house.

We received numerous angry phone calls thoughout the years from the golf course management. Champ was chasing down golf balls and jumping onto people's golf carts as they zoomed by.

Apparently, the golfers were pissed. They were losing track of their golf balls and acquiring unexpected guests in their carts. In my opinion, it just made their golf game more interesting.

Champ also loved to swim in our pool…especially with people. We tried to keep him away from the pool, because dog hair isn’t good for pool filters, but he always managed to wiggle in the pool gate when some poor unsuspecting fool walked in. I had several pool party incidents that involved him jumping on top of my friends while they were swimming. Champ thought it was the bomb. I think we stuck him on a raft one time, which he enjoyed immensely.

My favorite story about Champ involves one of my high school band practices (yeah, I was a band nerd, represent). My mother was in the process of having a new house built very close to my high school. While it was being built, she would visit it periodically to make sure everything was going ok.

One evening, while I was at band practice on the football field next to our high school, a dog came tearing through the fence barking like mad at all the glorious music we were making and our flashing instruments. “Hm,” I thought to myself. “That kind of looks like my dog. But we haven’t moved yet, so that couldn’t be him.”

The dog continued to bark and run through the marching band. Everyone had stopped playing and marching mid-song, laughing hysterically at the silly dog chasing everyone around. Our director was furious. Suddenly, I looked across the field to see my mother, running toward the band, clutching Champ’s leash, calling out "Champ! Champ!"

“Oh my gosh!” I cried out. “That’s MY dog!!!”

Apparently my mother decided to bring Champ along with her that day to visit the house. He heard the band playing and ran to see what was going on. That was the best band practice ever.

Pet series: fin.