His name was Zack. He was probably one of the dimmest dogs you could've met. It didn't matter how much you washed him, he was always a bit stinky, and loved to roll in Mum's garden cos the dirt made him happy. He was a real dork of a dog, really friendly, and at times ignored by other dogs who considered themselves too cool to be his friend. He had big floppy ears, his feet were too big for his body and he seemed to always be tripping over them. His tail never seemed to work quite right after an encounter with our pony shortly after he came home with us 12 years ago. He would eat just about anything - even plastic bags that smelled like stinky fish-bait. He had a terribly annoying habit of lying right across the front doorway, so you were forced to trip or leap over him everytime you were leaving the house, usually in a hurry. But he became a fixture, in fact, I think it will be strange to go home and find him not there on the door mat. And it was so hard to scold him cos he would look at you with those big brown eyes looking sweet and sorry although you knew he would just keep on being in the way.
I am by no means a person who goes ga-ga over animals, but Zack was a member of the family that I took for granted would be around and looked forward to seeing on my visits home. My sister and I called him Zachary because we were obessed with the movie called 'Hocus-Pocus' that had a black cat called Thackery in it. We couldn't very well give our little black puppy a cat's name, but Zachary was a variation that suited him well. What else can I say? I'll miss the sweet natured, stinky old thing. Bye Zacky.
