The story of my life Chapter 2 - Part 3 - Zoltan and Tyke

This is a true story from my life.
The story of my life – Chapter 2 – Part 3 – Zoltan and Tyke


I haven’t spoken about him yet but we had a dog, as a young child I didn’t seem to have any interest in him, he was there but I was never fascinated by him. Zoltan was a big black and brown German shepherd, now I know many people will think a German shepherd!, they are dangerous too be around kids but Zoltan was the most gentle, caring dog you could ever have met. It’s my belief that any animal cared for in the right way can be gentle no matter the breed. Zoltan was huge, my brother loved him he used to sit on his back and Zoltan would carry him around like a horse. My mother loved animals and cared for animals in distress, one day she was walking Zoltan in the park when they came across a dog hiding in the bushes, a brown face with big eyes were peeping out at my mother, she tried to approach him but he was skittery and nervous, as she got closer she noticed blood running down his back and was concerned for him. She spent twenty minutes trying to coax him out of the bushes when finally he came out and approached my mother, it was then obvious he’d been shot in the back possibly by an airgun pellet, why or how could anyone treat this poor animal this way she wondered after a lot of coaxing the dog she managed to bring him home.

She left Zoltan in the front door who seemed to be very understanding of the poor injured animal and called my father to the door, he asked what on earth is that, where did he come from, she told him he’s been shot and she couldn’t just leave him there and to put me and my brother in our rooms while she brings him in. She ushered the dog in the door, he was scared you could see it in his face, clearly people have not treated him well so far in his life. My father tried to examine the gunshot wound on his back but the poor animal yelped in pain and ran behind the couch and hid. My father said yep he’s been shot by an air rifle, my father was very experienced with air rifles he owned a couple and was a member at the local rifle club. We need to get him to a vet he said.

Mum stayed at home with us while my dad loaded the dog into the back of the car reassuring it that it’ll be ok we’ll get you fixed up. My father came home some time later and said to mum that he was put under anaesthetic and the vet had to perform an operation to remove the pellet from his back, yes he had been shot by an air rifle and the pellet was still lodged in his back, apparently a few dogs had come in with similar wounds, a bunch of hooligans apparently were shooting dogs in the park for fun, I wondered how anyone could be so cruel hearted to do that to a poor innocent animal.

The next day dad collected the dog from the vet, mum was protective of us and kept us away from him, he was a sandy brown colour with patches of black, kind of similar to Zoltan, mum said he looked like a German Shepherd but a bit of a mongrel, as in bred with some other breed so he wasn’t pure bred. He seemed friendly and thankful to mum and dad for helping him, he had a little scar on his back with stiches where the vet had cut him open to remove the pellet. Zoltan was sniffing him interested in this new creature in his house, they seemed to get along well. Me my brother and my sister said mum can we keep him!, can we keep him!, mum said that’s up to your father. Dad seemed to have bonded with him a little when taking him to the vet and said we’ll see, He’s not our dog, we’ll let him get well first and see from there.

The dog was very nervous at first and mum and dad kept us away from him at the start, one day he was running around the back garden and playing with dad and he said you’re a little tyke aren’t you. From that day on his name was tyke and just kind of became part of the family. Tyke and Zoltan became best friends and played together a lot at the start but we noticed whenever Tyke was near us Zoltan would stand between us or was very close by like a security guard. Zoltan had always been our protector, he looked after us and barked to alert mum if we were crying and for some reason now Zoltan always stood guard when Tyke was around.

Some days Tyke would play with us an lick us and run around and I began to trust him and loved him as a pet, he had become such a happy dog compared to the nervous injured animal he had been when mum found him. Zoltan’s attitude towards him though seemed to have changed, he began to become ultra protective of us and didn’t like him near us. I just wanted to play with him and was a little annoyed at Zoltan, I thought he’s just jealous because Tyke was the newer dog.

One day we were watching television in the sitting room when my little brother and Tyke were playing in the corner, Zoltan as always on guard close by, I was watching my little brother laughing as Tyke played with him when out of nowhere I saw Tyke’s lips curl up and his huge teeth bearing at my brother as he growled then snapped his teeth and lunged to bite the face of my brother, In that moment I froze, I was scared stiff, I couldn’t move. I had never seen anything like this before I trusted animals so much, I though they were all nice and friendly. In this instant Zoltan sprung into action and jumped and lunged at Tyke diving into him and pinning him to the ground, snapping and biting him, Tyke got to his feet and the two dogs engaged in a vicious fight, ripping and biting each other. My father got up to split them up and as he pushed them apart Tyke lunged and bit his hand causing it to bleed profusely. Mum ushered us quickly out of the room and closed the door. Eventually they stopped fighting, bog dogs were bleeding and covered in bites. Once Tyke had calmed down dad locked him in the shed.

Tyke had been in the shed for two days now since the incident and we only saw him briefly as dad went in to feed him, clean him and make sure he had water. He looked so depressed his ears were down and his eyes looked so sad, I felt sorry for him but at the same time I was too scared of him to go near him. After a long debate mum and dad decided that it was too cruel to keep him locked up in a shed his whole life but they can’t keep him around us because they can’t trust him after the incident, It wasn’t poor Tykes fault, he clearly had been treated awfully throughout his life and was just unpredictable because of this, I felt sorry for him, I wished I could give him a big hug amd make him better. A couple of days later, one afternoon Tyke was loaded into the car and taken away to a dog sanctuary, I never saw him again.

It was a lesson I learned in my life not to trust everything with open arms, from that day on I was wary of other animals I did not know and tended to be a little scared of other dogs. One thing I did realise was Zoltan was our hero and our protector, I felt very safe with him and never wanted to lose him.

That ends another part of my life, thank you for reading and see you in the next installment.