Risky Business, A.K.A., Dawg

By R. J. Hammond

Author R. J. Hammond has often had dogs in his life, but none of them were ever quite like Risky Business.

Although he and his wife, Tonya, were not looking for another dog when they encountered him, they knew he was the right dog for them. Smart, fast, funny, and loyal, Risky, a rescue dog, was a mix between a greyhound, deerhound, and border collie. He acted as a companion for the whole family but spent a lot of time in particular with R. J., who was diabetic and often dealt with dizziness while on their walks. Risky gave his family lots of reasons to laugh, from playing tricks and hiding treats to accidentally breaking Hammond’s leg. Ultimately, Risky enriched the lives of his family and will live in their hearts forever.

This personal narrative tells stories from the life of a special dog named Risky Business, sharing the ups and downs of his time with the Hammond family.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Aug 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781480893221

R. J. Hammond

R. J. Hammond grew up in eastern New Mexico and West Texas. He worked mainly in the oilfield and mining industry. In 1978, he moved to Grand Junction, Colorado, where he met his wife, Tonya. They have two children and one granddaughter and currently live in Denver.

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Copyright © 2020 R. J. Hammond.

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This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher

make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book

and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-9321-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-9322-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020913304

Archway Publishing rev. date: 8/25/2020

CONTENTS

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

My favorite mother-in-law loved Risky and if she told me once she told me 25 times that I should write about Risky. We lost Ruby House 2 years ago but she was instrumental in urging me to write a book about that dog. Well, I did it Ruby and thank you very much and I know you are looking down and smiling at my effort.

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ONE

I grew up with dogs, mostly mixed breeds and strays—dogs that, for the most part, would show up at houses and someone would feed them. My family moved from Texarkana, Texas, to Eunice, New Mexico, when I was three years old. Shortly after that my dad got a job with Phillips, and we moved to Oil Center to live in a gas camp that was two miles from the nearest store. There was an El Paso camp about a quarter mile to the west, and we all rode a school bus to Eunice to attend classes.

There were a lot of dogs around, and they seemed to go to wherever they could get fed and taken care of. The ones that weren’t really pets and didn’t belong to anyone always seemed to scrounge up food somewhere. You might have a dog around to feed and play with until they found a better deal. The camps were surrounded by mesquite bushes that tended to have a rattlesnake curled up under them. You could easily go out rabbit hunting and end up shooting a snake or, in my case, dropping the rifle and running away as fast as you could. I was pretty fast anyhow, but rattlers made me faster.

Several dogs got bitten through the years. On one occasion my brother was out hunting with some friends