This is a story of one of those very best friends that came along and played a very large part in our lives. It wasn’t only Moms, and mine but Don and Graig’s too. We can all reflect back and remember very special things in our lives that Tuggles was a part of. As I look back, I am so sure Tuggles was a part of our lives in another world.
Round about 1960, we were operating a Mobile Oil service station on 6th west and Main Street in Vernal. We had a good friend and customer named Art Boren. He owned a large heard of sheep and had a Mexican herder named Sabino.
One afternoon Sabino drove up to the pump for gasoline and while I was filling his tank I noticed a big old Shaggy Dog in the back of the truck. I reached over and began petting him while he sort of just leaned into the petting. Well, I probably petted him more than I needed to, but I just sort of took a liking to that dog. I finished filling the truck and gave him one more pat while saying a few more words to him and walked back into the sale room where Sabino was waiting and told him that I would sure like to have that Old Shaggy Dog! “si,” said Sabino. “He ees a good dog, very smart.” “What will you take for him?” I asked. “Oh, need him bad” he replied. With that Sabino turned to leave. I followed him outside and watched him drive away with that wonderful old dog. As Sabino stopped for the traffic light at the highway intersection that old dog turned and looked back at me. I liked that!
Its hard to know what happened after that because when Sabino left the station I was sure that there was no way Sabino would let go of that dog. Then one afternoon, probably a couple of weeks later, Sabino pulled up to the side of the station, got out of his truck and walked to the back of it. He climbed up on the truck, untied a short rope from the rack of the truck just as I was walking up to see what he was doing. He handed me one end of the rope and said “Here eez you’re dog.”
Speechless, I took the rope in my hand. The Old Dog jumped down off the truck, turned and rose up on me and began to give me them sloppy kisses all over my face. Sobino stood and grinned, then said, “Si, he likes you purty goood I theenk.” With that Sabino merely drove away.
I loaded the old dog onto my truck and headed for home. As I drove into the driveway and came to a stop, the old dog leaped out of the truck and ran around the house and down to the gate where the sheep were corralled and immediately began to let them know that he was the new boss around here. And you know, after that day when ever we were coming home or leaving to go somewhere he would do the same thing as if to let us know that this was what he was there for.
Since the day I brought him home he repeatedly made his run for the gate then turn and run around the house as if thoroughly enjoying himself. From day one this dog knew he was home, and so it was for the next nineteen grand years.
These old shaggy dogs are devoted and loyal friends. It is said that there love and devotion is unconditional, false, I know that they expect love in return and the more love they receive the more love that is again returned. For anybody that does not know and understand dogs there are no explanations, but those that do, no explanations are necessary.
Now Tuggles had been with us for a month or so when one day Sabino drove in to the station for gas and asked me if he could borrow Tuggles back for a while. Something had happened to his dogs. Well I wasn’t at all keen on letting him borrow Tuggles, but I somehow felt I had an obligation to this man who gave him to me in the first place. I pondered it a bit when I finally decided to let him borrow him for one month, no longer. He agreed.
We drove up to the house to pick up Tuggles, and sure enough, down to the corral he ran, then back up to where we were, jumped up on me and blessed me with more of his sloppy old kisses. Sabino stood their watching and grinning. Sabino said, He likes you purty goood I theenk.”
I knelt down by Tuggles and began talking to him, trying to explain that a month was not a terribly long time and soon he would be back home again. There is no doubt in my mind; he understood every word I said. That special sparkle left his eyes and his tail stopped wagging and went limp. He looked at me with that sad look and letting me feel like a was doing him wrong. I tried to ignore it, knowing that I had already made the commitment to Sabino. I got to my feet and walked to the back of the truck. I called to Tuggles, but he would not come toward me. I walked back to him and talked to him a little more which only made it worse so I picked him up and put him on the seat in the truck. I’ll never forget that betrayed look on his face when he turned to look at me. I felt like such a traitor.
Sabino got into his truck and backed out, turned to drive off and I watched that old dog looking out the back window. I don’t mind admitting I was looking through heavy tears. My heart felt so heavy.
I never did know how far away Sabino had taken him, but I do know that it was a lonesome time. Not only for me, but also for Mom and the boys who missed him too. I don’t think they resented me for what I done, but they should have.
Finally, one morning, we were returning from church when as we turned to go into our driveway…lo and behold…what a site! There on the front porch was TUGGLES! When he saw us he immediately jumped into his old routine and ran down to the corral gate and back up to everyone with those sloppy old kisses. Even some for me, the one who let him down.
How he got here and how far he came was a mystery to me, but he was tired, dirty and needed a bath. Well, in no time at all, as would be expected Mom had him in a bath with lots of soap and water. She almost finished with his bath when he decided to shake himself off a bit. Well, all of that long hair held almost the entire tub of water and needless to say, Mom took a dunkin. She just kind of fell back and started laughing. What a site!
A couple of days later Sabino showed up at the station feeling very bad. He said, “Wayne, I am sooo sorry but I have lost your dog”. He said, “ I search so hard for heem, and I don’t know why he left?” “Yeh Sabino” I said, “He showed up at my place a few days ago”. Sabino’s eyes lit up with relief. He was nearly as happy as we were. We talked about it for a while then Sabino said, “Well, I gotta go to camp, so I’ll just stop by your house and peek him up.” “No Sabino, I said, “I theeenk we better not do that because if I let him go again he may think that we don’t want him and will never come back again.” “Si , Hombre, maybe you are right. I will find another dog somewhere.” From that time on Tuggles never left the place without us.
There was so much enjoyment in watching the things that Tuggles would do. For example, Mom would set out flowers in the springtime and Tuggles would dig his own hole and lay in it while watching her dig her hole to put the flowers in. Mom would look at him and say, “Oh Tug”. Water would be running down the rows while Tuggles would lay down in one of the furrows damming up the water. Mom would look at him and say, “You’re a lot of help!”
Any place Mom went he was near by. He would always be with her when she walked through the fields among the sheep. Yea, sometimes he would be in the way, though not often, but he was always there. He taught me a great lesson too, in that in order to teach or use a good dog, one has to be smarter than he is and that isn’t easy. One afternoon I was down in the pasture checking the sheep, Tuggles was just three steps behind me and I didn’t like what the sheep were doing, so I slapped my hind pocket and said to Tuggles, “Get em!” He nailed me right on the hind pocket! I turned and looked at him as he sat there looking straight at me as if to say, “well, what’s next?” “Ya have ta be smarter than the dog, right?” He had done just as I told him to do.
Gratton had a herd of sheep down by Green River and had me help him to feed them. The first time that we went down to feed them together we loaded the truck with hay and entered the field where we were to feed the sheep. The sheep surrounded the truck so tightly that we couldn’t move. Enough of this I thought to myself and the next day we took Tuggles along with us. When we arrived on the field, down off the truck went Tuggles and after those sheep like no body’s business but his.
At first it kind of made Gratton mad to see this old dog chasing his sheep like that. He yelled. “Get that S.O B. back here!”
I said, “Hold on, let’s watch him for a minute”. Well, Tuggles just hazed them critters over to one side of the truck and kept em there! He would run back and forth about two or three lengths of the truck, woof occasionally. Sure made it easy to feed those sheep. No one ever taught him to do that. He just knew what to do and did it on his own. He would work for me, but would not work for Gratton.
One Saturday, Dad rode down with us to watch us feed the sheep. Well when we got to the stalk yard, there were sheep in there that were not supposed to be there. Gratton slammed on the brakes and jumped out and said, “go git em Tug!” Tug jumped out and ran around to the passenger side of the truck where I was and just sat down. Gratton just looked at him in disdain and said, “what in hell is wrong with him?” “Nothing”, I said as I stepped down from the truck and said, “go git em Tug”. And off he went as fast as he could go and hazed those sheep out of there and up through the field back to where they belonged. Then I whistled for him to return to the truck. He zig zagged all the way back as if to make sure he hadn’t lost any sheep along the way. Very impressive!
One very cold morning in January as we were nearing the pasture we noticed a ewe with her new lamb. How that little bugger lived through being born in that cold weather was beyond me, but he did and was as lively and perky as could be. Gratton decided the ewe and the lamb would have to be brought up to a more secure and warm place. I said to Gratton, “he was born in a cold place and he is tough” “you couldn’t kill him with a club”. Well, he wanted to take them home anyway, so we set about trying to catch them Bad idea! When we were both worn out and had not succeeded in catching them I told Gratton to go over to the truck and I would catch them. By now we were so out of breath and Gratton was so mad, he decided to give it a try.
The ewe and lamb were just standing there when I released Tuggles from the tuck. The ewe turned to run and Tug hit her ankle to knock her rolling then just stood over her with a low growl. He kept her there until we were able to go and grab her lamb. Again, Tug made a tough job easy.
We lived over at Dutch John for about a year, and Mom and that old guy just had a ball. During the day when the boys were in school and I was at work, Mom would take off with old Tug and go fishing over at Antelope Flat. They would fish for a while and walk for a while. They were an inseparable pair.
Tuggles was perhaps 2 or 3 years old when we first got him, which was about 1959 or 1960. By the time the late 70’s rolled around the old guy was slowing down. He couldn’t run and jump so much anymore. Mother Nature was working her magic. Finally one-day gravity pulled him down and he was no longer able to get up. We loaded him into the truck and were off to the vets. The diagnosis was not what we did want to hear. “He has cancer,” said the vet, “the best thing we can do is keep him comfortable as possible, cause it won’t be very long”. Whew! what a heartbreaking thing to hear about a pal who has been such a faithful endearing companion for so many years.
We took him home and Mom made a good comfortable bed for him in the front room and we carried his food and water to him. Now and then we would get him out to the back yard, then back into his bed. He seemed to know what we were doing with him. Finally, he became unable to eat and unable to drink. I would watch the tears roll down Mom’s face as she would take a small pan of water and a cloth to try to squeeze some water into his mouth.
I will never forget the night that Tuggles left us. We were ready for bed, Mom walked over to Tuggles and stroked his head and said goodnight to him. He suddenly looked up at me and just kind of whined a little bit, then he reached his head over and licked my hand. Somehow I think he knew and was letting me know that he was checking out that night. I gave him a gentle hug and let my tears roll down onto his fir.
The next morning Mom was up early. When I came down into the diningroom, there she was crying and unable to talk. Our Old Pal Tuggles had gone to his pasture in the sky!
This had happened during the cold month of January. I didn’t know what to do with him because the ground is so hard this time of the year. So, I wrapped him up in a rug and took him out to the garage. About ten days had gone by when one morning I was sitting in the kitchen having a cup of coffee. I was sitting there thinking, just maybe, on the south side of the house I might be able to dig.
I went and got my shovel, pushed back about 6 inches of snow. When I attempted to push the shovel into the ground I found that the ground there was just as soft as it would have been in June! “Why” I though! I dug that grave square, straight and deep. When I had finished went to the garage to get my old pal. When I picked him up I got another surprise that I will never be able to describe. Even though the temperature had gone down to 20 below zero, and Tug had been gone since 10 days, Tug was just as limp as the day he passed. I picked him up in my arms and carried him to his resting-place. Before I covered him I spoke to him for a while and asked god to please look after him. I again, don’t mind admitting that I hosed his grave with some more tears, cause my heart was breaking. I covered him gently, smoothed the ground over and put my shovel away.
Although we still miss our Tugs, I have no problem with where he’s gone. Only the Top Ten get to go there and Tuggles is right up front. Furthermore, I am looking forward to that grand sheep pasture, cause I’m sure that every once in a while the Lord will probably want to use Old Tuggles.

Meanwhile, "I thank God for allowing us such a Pal".

Owner of Tuggles: Wayne Hall

Author: Wayne Hall