Angus

It was the day, about 6 years ago, that my life changed forever.

In 2009, I was about 7 and my brother, David, was 17, almost heading off for college. My family and I, my Mom, Dad, and Sister, went to visit David. David lived on our family farm in Middleburg, Virginia.

Just as we were about to turn into onto our farm, we saw my brother’s truck, a white Ford F-150 with blue stripes, pull out of the farm next to ours. Inside the truck we saw my brother, a huge beast of a person whom you could never miss, and next to him a 2 week old puppy named Luther. Luther was as happy as ever, hanging his head out the window.

Luther was an English black lab born on the farm next to ours. He had 4 brothers and 2 sisters, all born on the same day. All had been sold but one, the runt of the litter.

Subsequently we went to see the puppies, for my 4 year old sister loved fluffy animals, as does every child. Not all of the puppies had been taken to their new families yet. When we entered the farm, there they were, happy as ever but terribly misbehaved. All of the puppies were running around with their mom, for their dad was elsewhere. Not all of the puppies were black like their mom - some were brown and others were white.

All of Luther’s siblings were in a commodious pen, like pigs - but not Angus... Angus had escaped the pen and was running with the horses in the field. After the first 20 minutes playing with him, it already felt like Angus was ours. It was not our intent to bring a dog home with us, but we did, and it was the single best decision our family has ever made.

Back at our farm, we saw Luther frolicking in the field but with another dog. The dog, like Angus and Luther, was a small black lab puppy. Little did we know that David’s cousin, Sam, had also gotten a dog from the same litter. His name was Rufus. Later when we were having lunch, Rufus was under the table, ready to eat any scrabs that fell.

Now, 6 and a half years later, all three dogs are still together. For a couple years, Rufus lived in Mississippi while Sam attended college, but now Sam moved back to Middleburg to pursue his dream of owning a brewery. When the dogs were smaller and you put all three together, you could not tell them apart; so we put different colored bandanas on them. Angus had red, Luther had green, and Rufus had Blue. After all of these years the three dogs now have their differences. Angus is fit and thin, Luther is thick and strong, and Rufus is big and fat.

As these 6 years passed nothing has changed: Angus wears his red bandana, Luther wears his green bandana, and Rufus wears his blue bandana. Luther still hangs his head out of the window of the truck, Rufus still eats anything he finds, and Angus still is the same escape artist he was 6 years ago.

~ Jack Ste.