Bobby D. Lux - Dog Duty (27 page)

With many thanks to:

Laura Lux, Ben Lux, Mike Lux
– Family, love, support, the usual.

Zachary Locklin
– The music for the Dog Duty Podcast is great.

Jara Jones
– Thanks for the years of support and input.

Katie Lamberton, Joe Hogan –
Thanks for letting me borrow your dogs for the story.

E. Van Lowe, Shell
y Lowenkopf, Aram Saroyan – Thanks for showing me the ropes.

Stephanie Gardellis – Thanks for loaning Queenie and Laika to help with promotion. They’ll be in sequel, I promise.

For those interested in such trivia, Nipper, Ernie, and Missy were my family’s dogs when I was growing up. Nipper was some sort of German Shepherd mix, and Ernie was…. Ernie. He was billed as a Golden Retriever, but he was orange and that was the extent of any resemblance. He was a tough little guy who was furiously loyal to his family. Nipper could be a grump when wanted to, but I’ve never seen a dog so happy to see you every morning. The two of them spent their entire lives, nearly fifteen years each, together as best buddies.

Missy came later into the fold, and as such, she stayed inside the house while Nipper and Ernie had our backyard for their home. Their paths only crossed when Missy would bark at
Nipper and Ernie through the window while the two of them couldn’t be bothered by her. Only after Nipper had passed away and when Ernie was much older (and far tamer), did Ernie and Missy strike up a friendship of sorts. Or at least they would nap and eat spaghetti together.

In a bit of a creative role-reversal, it was Nipper who would escape
from the backyard any chance he could, even as an old dog who could barely walk at the age of fifteen. If the gate was open, he was going to make a run for it. Ernie had no interest in an escape. His backyard was his backyard and he liked it that way.

Full disclosure, my father was a police officer (and an emphatic NO to the question if the rocky marriage between Officer and Mrs. Hart was a reflection of our home life), and briefly considered becoming a K-9 handler. One of the reasons he passed was because we weren’t sure how Nipper and Ernie would react to having a new “friend” at home.
As an adult many years later, I thought
what if?
This book is the answer to that question.

I suspect this isn’t the last we’ve heard from Fritz. During my “research” phase on this novel, I kept hearing stories and rumors about bodies turning up at the
cat races. Maybe Fritz will investigate one of those down the line. We’ll see…

Bobby D. Lux has a Master of Professi
onal Writing Degree from USC. His fiction, non-fiction, and poetry have appeared here and there in online and print. He co-wrote the screenplay for “Up the Valley and Beyond” which played at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012.

You can visit him online at
www.bobbydlux.com
.