The Missing Boston Terriers of Smith Street                                                        written and illustrated by Nancy T. Lucas

Scout was looking forward to his Dog Party.  These little get-togethers were simple:  Mumma opened about ten bottles of chilled refreshments for the mummas and put out bowls of fresh water on the porch for the dogs.  Dog Parties usually happened in the late afternoon and coincided with something called Happy Hour.

Tali was the first to arrive with his mumma, Mrs. Lackey.  He loped into the courtyard, wagging his huge tail, and licked Scout on the head.  “Hiya,” he said.  “Let’s go chase squirrels in the back yard!”

They trotted down the brick driveway to the small back yard and began sniffing and peeing.  It had rained recently so all the scents had been erased and new ones needed to be placed in strategic areas.

Tali circled the back yard.  “Wow, the yard looks great and smells good!  SQUIRREL!”  He ran after the bushy tailed rodent.  The squirrel ran up a tree, stood on the brick wall and sneered at Scout and Tali.

“HA!” he said.  “Can’t touch this!  Can’t touch this!”  And he sauntered to and fro and patted his bottom.  Scout leaped up the wall, almost to the top (he had had a lot of practice) but the wall was nine feet high.  Since Scout often chased squirrels in this way, this part of the wall was free of poison oak and fig vine.  The rest of the wall in the yard was covered with foliage.  “Catch you later, you dumb dogs!”  The squirrel scampered over the wall and up the tree in a neighbor’s yard.

Scout and Tali knew they would see no more squirrels that afternoon.  That rude squirrel would tell all his friends and family a Dog Party was happening and they would steer clear of that back yard for the day.

“Just once I’d like to get one!” exclaimed Scout.  “Nobody likes to be mocked.”

“We’ll get him.  Just you wait and see,” consoled Tali.  “Let’s go see what our mummas are doing.  Maybe they have food.”

By the time they returned to the courtyard, Ellen was entering with her three Springers.  Bella, Daniel and Perrin loved visiting Scout because he had a fountain in the courtyard.  The first thing all three Springers did was step into the fountain and lie down.

Scout trotted over and reminded them, “No sillies, you drink out of it.  It’s not for swimming – it’s not big enough.”

It was true.  Each Springer fit neatly on each side of the fountain.  There was room for Scout since the fountain had four sides, but he demonstrated drinking from one of the flowing spouts for them.  Bella, Daniel and Perrin were unimpressed and unmoved.  They preferred to swim.

“OK,” said Ellen.  “Be good guests and get out of that fountain.”  She unleashed them and accepted a glass of refreshment from Mumma.  Ellen, Mrs. Lackey and Mumma proceeded to the rocking chairs to talk about Ellen’s favorite subject: Springer Spaniel Rescue.

Ellen was the unofficial Patron Saint of Springer Spaniels.  If there was a Springer in need, a buzzer went off in Ellen’s head.  She knew exactly where that Springer was and what he or she needed.  The SPCA did not have to call Ellen when a homeless Springer was brought in – she simply arrived at the SPCA at the same time as the poor scared Springer.  She was amazing and dogs of all breeds were in awe of her.  Ellen had saved, cared for, and found homes for hundreds of unwanted Springers.  She tirelessly, carefully interviewed hundreds of applicants to match them with the right Springer personality.  Her three Springers felt very special because they lived with Ellen.

Bella herself was a rescued Springer.  She was found as a puppy in Wilmington, NC on the side of a road.  Bella had wavy black hair and loved to chase a ball.  She loved to steal cheese too.  Once, at a Christmas party, she had snatched a whole block of Vermont sharp cheddar and swallowed it without any mummas seeing her.  Because she hadn’t left a trace, no one noticed the cheese missing.  Scout liked Bella because she had a tremendous amount of energy.  He sometimes referred to her as the Junkyard Dog, which Bella thought was pretty funny.  She had a great sense of humor and often led the group in mischievous deeds.

Daniel was the opposite of Bella.  He was a low energy spaniel and preferred to not retrieve tennis balls.  Daniel and Scout resembled each other because they were distant cousins.  They were both black and white, had large blockheads and big paws.  Daniel sometimes made a good pillow when Scout was tired of chasing Bella.

Perrin was the oldest of all the Springers, eleven years, chubby and not very energetic.  Her black and white curly coat was streaked with gray.  She tended to put on the pounds easily if not walked every day.  Ellen was hers and hers alone since she’d had Ellen the longest.  Perrin was not easily separated from her mumma, and now she climbed out of the fountain to follow Ellen to the rocking chairs.  Perrin positioned herself right under Ellen’s chair so that there would be no rocking.  Perrin did not want Ellen to forget about her or miss her.

Daniel stepped out of the fountain and said to Scout, “OK, thanks for swim.  That felt good.  What should we do now?”

Bella did not need direction.  She took off for the back yard to check for squirrels, not knowing that the squirrels had vanished temporarily.  The other dogs ran after her.

When they did not find any squirrels, they decided to run laps around the driveway and porch.  They ran up the side steps, through the chatting mummas, down the long porch and front steps and back down the driveway.  It was a great circuit.  Sometimes the mummas had food so they stopped to see if there was extra food for them.  After eating some cookies, they continued the race.

On the third lap, Pudge strolled by the front gate.  All the dogs barked polite greetings.  He did not come in, of course, since he was patrolling.  He was looking for the parking attendant who gave tickets to cars parked too long in the same spot.

Pudge knew all the parking attendants.  He liked to alert them if a car had been abandoned and required a boot.  New attendants did not know quite what to make of Pudge at first.  They eventually got used to him and fed him cheese sandwiches, his favorite.  Animal Control paid a visit once a year to Pudge’s mumma to reprimand her with a fine for letting Pudge roam free, and his mumma usually told them to go away.  And they did.  After all, Pudge couldn’t very well meet his neighborhood responsibilities locked in his own yard now, could he?  What were those people thinking?

No more dogs came to the party that day.  Scout was sorry Ike, Clyde and Zeek did not attend the party.  Zeek’s mumma and dad worked long hours, and Ike and Clyde often traveled between Charleston and North Carolina.  A few more non-mummas, dogless, came by to help drink the refreshments.  Daniel ran into the water bowl on a lap and upset it so Mumma refilled the bowl for the hot tired dogs.  By this time, they were all ready to squeeze themselves under chairs, drool and sleep.  It had been a great Dog Party, except for the elusive, rude squirrel.