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| Name: |
Lloyd
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Age: |
Five years old
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| Gender: |
Male |
Breed: |
Labrador Retriever, Pit-Bull |
| Home: |
Charlotte, North Carolina, USA |
One day,
while riding in the car, Lloyd thought he could fly. He is a
dog of meager beginnings, so his grasp on reality may have been a bit
skewed as a puppy.
As a Labrador/Pit-Bull puppy, Lloyd and his brother Bailey were
carelessly abandoned to the cruel streets of North Atlanta, Georgia in
January of 2001. They scavenged for scraps of food, they lapped up
polluted puddles of water in the streets and they curled into each other
for warmth as they slept. As luck and the New Year would have it, they
were spotted by my husband, Mike, at the back door of the lacrosse store
that he managed and was visiting for the weekend. He gave them fresh
water, fed them proper puppy food and let them come inside from the
cold. Unfortunately, Mike was coming back to Charlotte, where we lived,
and he couldn't very well leave the two puppies in the wild to fend for
their survival. He packed both of the puppies up in the back seat of
his Ford Contour and took them on their first road trip to Charlotte,
NC. His business partner adopted Bailey and we welcomed Lloyd into our
home and our family.
It wasn't long after Lloyd relocated to town, that Mike had him in yet
another car ride to a friends' house. Up until this point, Lloyd didn't
take to car rides like Mike had hoped. Mike had a child-like wish that
Lloyd would sit up to the open window, stick his head out and lap at the
fresh air as it came in the car. Lloyd preferred to cower in the
crevice of the back seat with his head in his paws and shake anxiously.
On this particular trip, however, Mike watched with a father's pride as
Lloyd gradually sat up, sniffed at the fresh air blowing through the
back passenger side window, put his front paws on the door's arm rest,
slowly ease his head out into the open air and then completely launch
himself through the open window of a 35 mile an hour moving car, like
Superman responding to a distressed call! Mike immediately stopped the
car and pulled off to the side of the road. Lloyd skidded on his front
elbows and tumbled to a stop on the grassy side of the road. He got up,
shook off his unfortunate landing, relieved his bladder and then trotted
up to meet his new, unnerved, puppy owner by the vehicle of his
take-off. He suffered a little road rash on his elbows, but he was no
worse for wear.
We've enjoyed his company for five years now and he's thankfully gone
back to cowering in the back seat of the car during road trips. He
learned a very valuable lessen that day. Lloyd learned that even though
he could survive the brutal streets of Atlanta and sell himself on
cuteness to a loving home, he could, in fact, not fly. And we don't ever
leave the window open that far any more anyway.
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