JoJo the dog

My old dog JoJo was great entertainment for my family. We had him for many years and he provided the family with love, companionship and much laughter.

He always did silly things. We always lived in a one-story house and JoJo liked to jump up on my daughter’s bed, unto her dresser and then escape out the screened window in her bedroom. I can’t even guess at how many times we had to replace that screen. He just loved being outside.

Well when we moved to Norwalk, we moved to a two-story house. We were just getting settled in and there were always many neighborhood kids out on the driveway waiting for my son top come out and play.

One day JoJo decided to make his escape. He went right to my daughter’s room and dove out her window. I guess once in mid air, he must have realized that something wasn’t right. He grabbed on to the flower planting box and wrought iron railing on the front of the house. He hung there with his front paws wrapped around the railings and his body was just dangling above all the kid’s heads. They were all yell at him to hang on (like he understood the situation). Eventually he dropped down, hit the ground and started chasing all the kids. All the kids surrounded him trying to catch him. Well, he bit Ralph and ran away.

As I’m running down the street trying to catch him, what I was actually thinking was, “Oh great, what a once welcome to the neighborhood.” A lawyer will be at my door any minute.” Ralph and JoJo were both fine and no lawyer ever showed up!

JoJo was always getting into something he wasn’t supposed to. It’s a good thing the family loved him so much. I, not being a pet person, never laughed as hard as the rest of the family when he did something wrong.

Once after breakfast we had all left the kitchen unattended. When we walked back in we found JoJo standing up on top of the kitchen table. His face was completely covered with white powder. All we could see of his face were his big eyes. The empty powdered sugar donut box was laying on its side.

JoJo froze as we entered the room. (Like if he stood still enough, maybe we wouldn’t notice). He stood perfectly still, face completely covered with white powdered sugar and had a look on his face like as if he were saying, “What donut?”

One time my white cat was up on the roof of my house and fell all the way down the chimney. She landed in a big thud and was completely covered in ash and soot. We had no idea what had fallen down the chimney, and thought it might be a squirrel. We could only see two big eyes staring back at us.

Well JoJo spotted those eyes and the chase was on. The cat ran and JoJo chased, out the fireplace, up on and across the couch, over the chair, behind the TV, up on the window sill and across the love seat.

This was a fast and furious chase that we were unable to stop. JoJo was determined to catch whatever this thing was. Only after they made several rounds around the room, leaving a trail of soot and ash every step of the way did we realized that it was our precious kitty.

Imagine me not smiling that day. It was an unbelievable mess.

Oh yes, JoJo brought much entertainment to our family.

Gail Earl is a student in the memoirs writing class at Cerritos College.