Dogster

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Ryker the mutt of all mutts

Who am I?

Just who is the mutt of all mutts? I go by the name of Ryker, which the people pronounce 'rye-curr'.
Let me tell you a bit about myself to start, so you know where i am in life and how i got there.
I began life on a farm in Cambridge, but I did not stay there for very long. My first owners loaded me into a truck and shipped me off to a humane society when I was only a couple of months old. Perhaps they couldn’t properly care for us.
I stayed in a small pen with my brothers and sisters for a few weeks, until we grew a bit bigger. I had three brothers. Somehow, we all looked very different even though we came from the same litter! My brother Ritchie had pointed ears, a dark brown coat with tan on his chest. My other brother Chachi was brindle all over, and Potzee was completely tan all over.
As for me, I has black coarse fur all over my body except for brindle on my legs and huge paws and some brown on my snout.
As the days went on, my siblings started joining families. One day I was finally picked up by a family. We drove for one hour until we finally reached my new home.
When I first arrived home, two large dogs came up to me and started barking in my face. I hid behind the doghouse. Those dogs were my new brothers: Harley, a German Shepherd, and Sarge, a Shepherd/collie mutt. They were quite scary at first (considering Harley was big enough to eat me), but I quickly learned ways to outsmart them. We became fast friends.
Just as a started to adjust to my new family, old Sarge passed away. Luckily I still hard big Harley to keep me company and teach me the ways of the family. We play an important role at the house; we must sit around all day pretending to be tough and then go for a three-hour long run at night. We must get wet and dirty in the swamp. We must play-fight against one another and bark at squirrels. It’s a great life.
When I reached the age of 2, Harley started stumbling. He had trouble walking all of a sudden. I tried to get him to play with me, but he couldn’t. His hips were failing him. My owners took him for a ride in the car one day, and he never returned. His time had come and gone.
For a while, I was alone. Boy, did it hurt to be by myself all the time. I stopped taking nightly runs; there was no point anymore, now that my brothers had gone. I was very depressed. My owners tried to comfort me, to no avail. I found that I started to lose my appetite and lost interest in my toys. Very hard times.
Then, one day, the owners arrived home with a peculiar box. It was peculiar because it had an odd scent and was making noises, unlike most of the boxes they bring home. I jumped up to try and see what was in it.
Seeing how excited I was the owners placed the box on the ground for me to see. I immediately stuck my big head into the box to have a good look. Suddenly the contents of the box yelped and its small teeth dug into my snout. What a great first impression I’d made to my new brother; scaring the daylights out of him.
The new puppy was called Duke. He was a little black runt of a Shepherd who thought he would become the new alpha dog around here. Not a chance at his size! Sometimes I’d get in trouble for playing too rough with him, but what was I supposed to do, let him win?
For the most part we got along well. I was just glad to have a companion again. But the little guy grew and grew. In no time he was a fair match for me. Then, before I knew it, he’d grown even bigger and stronger than me!
I still live with him to this day. You might say that he’s the boss around here now, but I still think I’m smarter than him. Even though he’s older, Duke is still immature and I have to deal with him. But no problem, I’m still young too after all!
A while ago, something funny started happening to my eyes. My vision became clouded, like there was fog out all the time. The vet told my owner that I have a disease called pannus, and it is incurable. Now I have to take these eye drops every single day, at breakfast and at dinner. It hurt a lot at first but now I’m used to it. Vet says its my Shepherd genes showing that I got this disease. Wait…what Shepherd genes?! I don’t resemble a Shepherd at all!!!
Someday I may go blind. My owners say that I will get to move into the house with them if that ever happens. I hope I can keep my vision for as long as possible, though. Even if I do go blind, I think that my sense of smell and hearing can get me by.
For now, I’m enjoying every part of life to the fullest, peeing on every tree, swimming in every swamp, chasing every squirrel.