H
|
e had always loved
money. He loved what it bought. He loved the power it gave him. He also enjoyed
how money made him feel. To him, money was not only important, but he believed
that getting money was his mission in life.
His name was George, but they
called him “Psych.” It was not because he could read someone’s mind but because
he could predict a person’s actions, and when it came to dog-fighting, he had
an instinct that seemed spooky. He especially understood anything that had to do
with the business of dog-fighting and the people who loved to see them fight.
He admired the winners of a dog-fight. He loved the anticipation of a dog-fight
and the rush of emotion during the battle. Seeing his dog win never stopped
being a peak moment.
He knew how to breed fighting dogs
because he had been breeding them for most of his life. He would match his most
vicious bitch to a muscular and strong-minded stud. He’d kept the most
aggressive pup and sold the rest of the litter for a good price. He had learned
how important it was to remove the puppies from their mom as soon as they were
born. If he did not remove the puppies quick enough, the mother’s temperament
would destroy all the puppies in the litter.
Psych had developed the power of anger to instill fear. He wondered if this was at the time that he had overheard his mom talking to a friend about her fear of anger.
She had said, “It was an incident that happened when I was eight years old. My father had been out in the driveway screaming at my brother. Stomping into the house, my father grabbed his hunting rifle, loaded it, and then mumbled something about teaching my brother a lesson. He slammed the door on his way out and began to point the rifle at my brother.
“I was able to see the two of them as I looked out the window. My brother suddenly grabbed the end of the rifle. They struggled. The gun shot was loud and sudden. I began to sob. I was too afraid to continue to look at this fearful scene. It was a welcome relief when I discovered that no one had been hurt, but I never forgot the fear I felt at this time of uncontrolled anger.”
Psych smiled and thought again about the wisdom he had gained from his life experiences. I
remember
the time I had read an article about electronic shock collars. It was written
by a well-respected organization. It had advised the non-use of the collar for
training because it could cause aggression in the dog. That was a helpful
bit of advice for me because I wanted aggression in my fighting dogs. It did
help me with my dog-fighting training.
He had done this dog-fighting work
for years, until the government raided his illegal dog-fighting pit. It was
just pure luck that he was not at his place when they made the raid. He was out
of town and using his stud for a large-purse competition. The only reason he
brought the bitch along was for a chance at breeding her to another top
fighting stud.
He lost much of his assets in that raid but managed to flee the state before the authorities could catch him. “It’s a good thing that I had kept part of my money in some out-of-state banks,” he had remarked at that time.
“A while back I found me the perfect location,” he had boasted. He remembered, I’d been working on this 50-acre run-down farm. When the farmer’s doctor told the farmer that he had terminal cancer, that was when he began to rely entirely on my help. I found it easy to trick the owner into signing over his deed to the farm. The farmer had been taking a lot of medications and did not realize what he was signing. He had no need for a farm when he would soon be heading into the hospital. Psych claimed, “I did him a favor!”
At that time, he had been stealing
the smaller unsupervised dogs from the Riverview area. Sometimes he was able to
capture a few from the local dog park. It was easy to do when the small dog was
friendly, and the owner was paying little or no attention to their dog.
Psych also discovered a few area
neighborhood yards where the dog owners paid little or no attention to their
dogs. Whenever the owners would release their small dog into the outdoor yard,
Psych would watch the actions of the owners. If they ignored the barking of
their dogs and seemed to be unconcerned about giving their canine any
attention, he knew he would have a successful grab and go.
It seemed easy to stuff the little animal into his pocket or bag and disappear.
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This is the second in a series of true-to-life fictional books about dogs and those who love them. We will be serializing the chapters weekly. This book and several otehrs of hers are available through Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=helen+a.+bemis&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss
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