The Dog that Lives on the Moon

By Armando Gonzalez

Life after death? Where is the Rainbow Bridge?

Sugar, a mixed breed Chihuahua/cairn terrier, answers these questions in The Dog That Lives on the Moon. This book is a story of not only her life here on earth but also her spiritual life on the moon. Her earthly life consists of living with two humans and the adventures they shared and also the dogs that were part of her life and her nemesis, Ash Lee and Gypsy, two cats who lived with her at the Del Mar Apartments. She lived in Tucson, Arizona, but traveled to places like Tombstone and Bisbee, Arizona, San Diego, San Francisco, and Mount Saint Helens.

After her death, her adventures continue, but with a little more spice. She goes to live on the moon where she meets Cochie; Cutie, an abused dog; Thunder, a fighting dog; Kingston, a Hurricane Katrina casualty; and Skeeter, the oldest dog living on the moon, each with their own stories. One adventure that Skeeter tells her is the landing on the moon by men and what happened. She even meets two important human spirits, Francis and Buddy, who share philosophy with her.

A great read for dog and animal lovers, it grips the heart of the reader, and they will never look at their pets the same way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781662464935

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The Dog that Lives on the Moon

Armando Gonzalez

Copyright © 2022 Armando Gonzalez

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2022

ISBN 978-1-6624-6491-1 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-6624-6493-5 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

The Final Day

Puppy Love

I Was a Traveling Dog!

Cochita

My Master

Living in Limbo

Reid Park

Cutie

Pacific Shores

Thunder

The Del Mar Apartments

Disneyland

Amy

The White Mountains

Tombstone and Bisbee

Francis

Katrina

The Fish

Elko

Skeeter

Men on the Moon

Coastal Highway

San Francisco

Buddy

My Last Christmas

My Final Journey

For

Sarah and P. K. Medhi

and

John Stephens,

my friends, my inspiration

If dogs don’t go to heaven, when I die, I want to go where they went.

—Will Rogers, humorist

The Final Day

I knew that on this Valentine’s Day, I was going to die, and I didn’t even live in Chicago. I woke up feeling very sick, hurting, coughing, weak and could hardly breathe. I should have died long before, but my masters would have none of it, and I had to endure. I was twelve years old and had been sick for a while. By now I was blind, arthritic and had a liver disease that kept me bloated and swollen that had I been human, I would have been a cross between Elvis Presley (the old Elvis) and Ray Charles. My disease attacked, slowly at first, but there came the point where I was so debilitated I just couldn’t live anymore. When they took me to my veterinarian, Dr. Carney, he agreed.

If my original sickness wasn’t enough, other maladies began to occur. One of them was my eyesight. I noticed that it was deteriorating rapidly when I started bumping into things and getting in people’s way that when they weren’t kicking me, they were stepping on me. One time, I fell off a small staircase and landed flat on my back. It knocked the air out of me, making me look like a flailing fish out of water. It was very embarrassing.

My senses told me I had enough, so through my powers of persuasion, I let my masters know that it was time for me to go home to the Rainbow Bridge. I could feel the hurt and the uncontrollable sadness that was permeating throughout their every movement as they took me to Dr. Carney, holding me tight and not wanting to let go and I too sick to comfort them, feeling helpless that I couldn’t do more.

When Dr. Carney told them, You are doing the right thing, I felt vindicated.

The car ride to the vet was bittersweet. It was in this car where I had experienced some of the most exciting moments of my life.

Sticking my head out the window with the car moving at any speed was pure ecstasy and my favorite thing to do! The wind blowing in my face brought the many smells into my nostrils, giving me more than I could handle, and the pressure of the air hitting my face made me feel like I was flying through the sky like an eagle, dive-bombing down toward its prey, air rushing by, slapping my cheeks, and I know I could never get enough! I called it my skydiver’s rush!

Now all I could do was lay quietly and reminisce. In my critical condition, I could hardly raise my head, let alone stick it out the window as I could see the tears of the two people who were driving me to my final earthly destination.

Before leaving my house, I managed to eat a regular breakfast of Black Forest ham, which was my ultimate favorite; did my lady thing; and then did something very unusual—I went up to Amy, my mom, and kissed her goodbye. I rarely kissed her as I wasn’t as close to her as I was to Master.

When we arrived at the Fort Love Animal Hospital, Dr. Carney was waiting. It was a somber moment for everyone but me. For once, I wasn’t scared of being in the vet’s office as a blissful feeling had come over me, and even though I knew I was about to die, I was calm.

I had been to the Fort Love Animal Hospital many times, and Dr. Carney had been wonderful! Sure there were times when he did things that I didn’t appreciate, like sticking his thermometers where the sun didn’t shine, but all in all, he was a fine veterinarian. I went there to get spayed, get my teeth cleaned and my nails clipped. Dr. Carney was always grabbing, touching, and holding me, but he was gentle, even when his cold stethoscope made me jump as he put it on my chest.

I was taken into the examining room and placed on a cold table. Dr. Carney took out his instruments of death (ha ha) and proceeded to go to work. He took one of my legs, shaved a little area, and stuck a needle into it.

We’re ready, he said.

Then he bent over, kissed me on my head followed by my family, who also kissed me, telling me goodbye and that they loved me. Master held me tight.

As Dr. Carney pushed the plunger, I felt the warm medicine flowing into my veins. I felt sleepy as the pain went away. In an instant, I was young and strong again!

I’m fine, I cried. I’m cured. Let’s go home!

It was then I saw my body slumped over on the table with Master holding on and Dr. Carney taking the needle out, then leaving the room. Master let go, and then he and Amy started stroking my body and began kissing it as they cried.

We love you, Sugar. We’ll miss you, baby. Take care of yourself.

I, on the other hand, felt wonderful! I wasn’t sick anymore! I could see again! I was young! I was floating in the air!

I was now living in the spirit world where I could see what was going on in the earthly one without being involved.

After a while, my family left. Dr. Carney returned, picked my body up, and carried it to the back of the hospital. Later that afternoon, an elderly gentleman came, took it, and had it cremated. My ashes were returned to my family later in the week, and with that, my earthly life was finished.

Puppy Love

I was born at the Sycamore Trailer Park, where I lived with my brother, sister, and my mother, a cairn terrier. My father was a Chihuahua, whom I didn’t know at all. He lived up the street, enclosed in a yard, except for that one time when his masters went to work, leaving a gate open, prompting dad’s escape, his coming over, impregnating mom, and quickly returning home. Occasionally, when we were babies, we could hear him bark but he never said much!

Our mother, on the other hand, was very nice; she was comforting us, cleaning us, and keeping us fed. It was very exhilarating when she lay next to us and taught us the art of snuggling.

Snuggling, she told us, is very important, not only because it keeps you warm when it’s cold, but by keeping that close contact with each other, it keeps your souls joined together. When I’m gone, snuggle with your master or with other dogs if they live with you. Nothing can be lonelier than having no one to snuggle with.

As babies, we were always snuggling, and later, I would snuggle with my family.

My siblings and I had a lot of fun growing up, wrestling with each other, biting one another, and chasing ourselves all over the yard, stumbling and tripping, laughing so hard our stomachs hurt! I loved biting my brother’s tail while he bit mom’s ear, and sister would gnaw on my hind paw. Mom was patient with us and laughed at our games, telling us that when she was our age, she did the same with her brothers and sisters as well as her mom.

Mother taught us the things that would become the cornerstone of our lives. Throughout my years, I never forgot her words about loyalty, obedience, and compassion—the dog code.

Always be loyal to your master, she told us. And let nothing come between you. Give your undying loyalty to your family no matter how they treat you and remember that strict obedience is a must! Don’t let the way you’re treated influence you on how to act as a dog. A dog always has character. Love your family and those around you and never treat anyone mean. Be happy with what’s given you and always do your best to make those around you share in your happiness. Let people share their love with you. That’s compassion.

One day, she said, we won’t be together anymore and won’t see each other again, but never forget, we will always be a family, and I will always love you.

I Was a Traveling Dog!

I was introduced to humans early in my life. When we were babies, young children would come over and try to touch us, but Mom wouldn’t let them. Only when we opened our eyes did she relinquish. The kids were pretty rough sometimes, picking us up, pinching us, and occasionally dropping us, but Mom watched carefully, and if things got out of hand, she would growl a warning or bark, letting them know to ease up.

One day, a man came, picked up my brother, and a few days later, my sister left with a little girl, and I never saw them on earth again. For a while, it was just Mom and I. I could tell she missed her children, but she tried not to show it. I got as much love as before, and at night, she would lick my nose and sing to me while we snuggled.

You ain’t nothing but a puppy dog…

I’m sure they’ll be coming for you soon, she said, but don’t worry because you’re meant to be with people. Just remember everything I taught you. I’ll always love and remember you.

Soon, a woman came, grabbed me, put me in a box, took me to her car, and laid the box down on the back seat. When the car started moving, it was a new sensation for me, and since all I could see were the sides of the box, I experienced a bad case of vertigo and threw up. Luckily, the ride wasn’t very far, and by the time I arrived at my first human home, I had recovered quite nicely. My new home was inside a house, a big house. I was excited and expectant on how I would be treated. I was fed, given water and a box, with rags at the bottom to sleep in, which was placed on the floor, making it very comfortable.

There was a boy there whom I fell in love with immediately. He was a lot of fun, and I knew right away that he liked me very much. My favorite game, which I played with him, was the grab and go. Anything that fell to the floor I would immediately grab with my mouth and take off running! He would then chase me, and I would go in different directions, depending on what room we were in. He would get close and try to take whatever I had away from me, but I always dodged him. When he got too close, I would growl, which was my way of saying, Missed me, sucker!

I would put anything in my mouth, including sheets of paper, empty gallon jugs of milk, shoes (which were a little heavy, but I did a good job of dragging them around), socks, underwear, and even his pants, which he liked to leave lying on the floor.

There were three toys that I liked to play with the most: a small stuffed dog, a tennis ball, and a knotted rag. At night, when the boy was watching television, laying on the couch, I would get my knotted rag, go up to him, and stand by him and hit him with my paw, and he would look down at me and say, Playtime again, Trisha?

With that, he took hold of the rag, and I bit down as hard as I could, and we would play tug-of-war. He pulled me every which way, and I hung on for dear life, growling every time he yanked! We played this game until I got tired. He would scratch my head and tell me what a fun time we had.

At night, he let me sleep on his bed, and I would snuggle up to him, and he would put his arms around me, and we would go to sleep. The ecstasy of my first snuggling was something I never forgot.

One day, the boy took me outside and tossed a ball toward the fence. Wow! I ran as fast as I could, and when I caught up with it, I was going so fast I couldn’t stop in time, hitting the ball and flipping over it! I recovered nicely and tried not to look embarrassed when I heard him laughing. I finally grabbed the ball with my mouth, and when he tried to take it away, I growled at him. I was so surprised that someone would want to take my ball away that I actually wanted to bite him!

I took off running, and he said, Oh, yeah? and ran after me. He chased me in circles, and I thought he deliberately didn’t catch me, but when he did, laughing, he picked up the ball and threw it again. Wow! Again I took off!

We did that for a while, and soon that became my favorite game. I liked chasing the ball, and he liked throwing it, not seeming to mind that he had to chase me every time he wanted the ball. I enjoyed, very much, running in circles and growling. We had a lot of fun.

Sometimes he took me for walks, took pictures of me, and gave me baths.

One day, I had my first brush with sadness. The boy went away, and it was a long time before I saw him again. The next time I saw him, he was dressed in a uniform. He looked so handsome! He wasn’t as playful as before, but he still loved me. The few days he was at