We had a dog. I never knew for sure what her breed mix was, so I dubbed her a “Bob-tailed Licorice Back” I know that might sound ridiculous to some but made perfect sense to me. Being a simple person myself, I took one look at her shiny black back and lack of a tail and the breed name seemed obvious to me.
We got her as a pup from our daughter who found this crazy little dog running around lose in Chico California one fourth of July.
I don’t remember if I named her or she already had the obvious name for a female dog from Chico, Chica was her name. I think that is why sometimes when I would yell at Chica I would say Tina. Most parents with multiple kids will tell you it is a common slip of the tongue and not Freudian or whatever. Tina is a physiology major and author, so I have to try and make that clear.
Now I’ve been a dog lover all my life, I’ve known many and had several before her. There was Pepper the dalmation, King the German Shepard, Growler the wimerwiner, Buddy the Pit Bull, Lobo the Mutt and a few others. I’ve seen dogs that were incredibly smart and some not so much and there are just regular dogs.
Well, Chica was no regular dog. She liked kids a lot and hated almost every dog she ever met. She could jump over six feet off the ground and destroyed several retractable leashes rated for hundred pound dogs. She was smart too.
She inspired me to make up several ridiculous little rhymes that I would chant much to my wife’s amusement. Who wouldn’t chuckle when a cocky little 25 pound German shepard/doberman/Chihuahua looking dog came prancing along and I would chant something like:
Bob-Tailed licorice back…..that little dog that has no crack! Or, clickety clack…..here comes a licorice back! After hearing it a bunch of times I saw My wife laugh. I’m not sure if it was the dog, me or the song, but it was worth it.
I worked for a water district that delivered irrigation water to several small ranches and Chica went to work almost every day for years. She was very serious when we were changing water, well mostly anyway. We had a few incidents and adventures. I’ll write about a few in my next story about the BTLB. Joe
