1989 ~ Chasing the DEA

It was in 1989 while Benjamin and Trey were in Pagosa so I was home all by myself.  When I arrived at work one morning, there was a big black Suburban in the parking lot.  It had totally black windows and looked very creepy.  When I looked in the windows all I could see where some vague black shapes.  When I asked about it, no one seemed to have any idea who it belonged to.  That seemed odd to me since it was so striking.  I wondered about it all day.  

When I left work, as I got in my car it pulled out so of course I followed it.  I mean, who wouldn't???  It led me on a merry chase all right.  We flew through Vernon then onto 387 and it kept picking up speed.  We got to Electra and then I had to give up.  I think by then we were going about 80 mph.  I knew if I got stopped I would lose it and probably end up in jail.  LOL.  Crestfallen, I returned home with my curiosity unabated.  

However, the next day, there it was again!  This time Dr. Pete Jacoby (one of my bosses) was in his office so I went and asked him about it.  He said "Well actually I'm glad you are asking.  The feeling is mutual apparently".  He told me to have a seat and then explained the story.  The Suburban belonged to the DEA and they were parking it at A&M and using an A&M official vehicle (with Pete in it) to stake out the crop dusting landing strip next door. Apparently drug dealers were landing at some of the small airports at night to distribute their drugs.  The day before they were headed to a small landing strip on the other side of Electra.  

And yes, of course, they saw me following them.  They were not happy because if I had been stopped it might have attracted attention.  They asked Pete if he knew who it was and he said of course, and promised to tell me to back off.  LOL.  So I was warned not to bother the DEA.  Usually, isn't the other way around?   

1990 The Ugly Man

When he was about 3-1/2, for about 6 months, Benjamin had nightmares.  He would wake up screaming and crying.  Sometimes I brought him into our bed, and sometimes I stayed in his car bed with him.  He said in the dreams he was stolen by "an ugly man".  He couldn't really describe him, just that in various situations, the "ugly man" would grab him and run away with him.  

I talked to Uncle Carl (our family doctor) about it, and he said it was probably a reaction to the train accident.  A boy about his age was killed, and even though I didn't really talk to Benjamin about it, he saw it and he saw Colby lying there.  It affected me greatly, and I'm sure he heard me talking about it.  It's possible that because he couldn't really express his fear, the only way he could visualize it was that he was stolen, the way Colby was "stolen" from his family.  In that context, it makes sense.

That is probably also the origin of his imaginary friend, Shelfis.

After we moved to Denver in September 1990, he didn't dream about the "ugly man" anymore.

1989 Sunny on the Tracks

When he was about 3 years old, my son Benjamin had a Wolfhound named Sunny.  I had an adult named Shadow, and I had decided Benjamin needed his own puppy.  He loved Sunny, they went roaming around together.  We lived in a trailer house on my in-laws' land and there was plenty of space.  We had a fenced yard as well, where the dogs could stay.  But sometimes we liked to let them out and take them "out back" where the land dropped down to fields and then the Pease River.

Smith Hill

Not too far away from our trailer was the railroad track.  The trains went by pretty regularly.One day, I went outside and didn't see the three dogs, Sunny, Shadow, and our white German Shepherd, Critter.  Then I found a hole dug under the fence.  I started running up our towards the track and the street because that was I feared the most.  As I did, I saw Shadow and Critter come running towards me.  Critter kept going to the house, but Shadow was visibly upset.  I went with him up the embankment to where the train track was, and then I saw him, a pile of fur a little way down the track.  He didn't appear to be moving.

I ran all the way back to the house to get my car, which was a little Dodge Colt Premier Turbo.  I put Critter and Shadow in the yard and grabbed a couple of blankets.  Then I called our vet, Dr. Roger Lacy, and told them I was coming, and took off to the track.
When I got there, I left the back door of the car open.

Then I climbed up the embankment to where Sunny was lying.  He wasn't moving, but he seemed to be breathing.  He had a long singe mark all the way down his side from his shoulder to his flank.  I wasn't sure what to do, what if he had a broken back?  But I couldn't leave him lying on the track, knowing more trains would be coming.  I spread out one of the blankets and dragged him onto it.  He made some movements, so I know it must have hurt, but he didn't try to bite me.  After I got him on the blanket, I managed to get him down the embankment to the car.  He weighed about 80 lbs, I would imagine.  Somehow I got him onto the back seat, shut the door and took off to the vet.

Lacy Vet Clnic

When I got there, they took him in and told me to wait.  It was a long wait.  When Dr Lacy came out to get me, he told me Sunny was lucky that he was still alive.  He didn't appear to have any broken bones, but, he had a severe concussion and his responses were not good.  Roger thought he might have been hit a glancing blow on the head and landed between the 2 rails.  That would account for the singeing of his coat, from the heat of the metal wheels going by him.  It was close to a miracle that he actually only had the concussion.

Sunny stayed at the vet for about a week.  When he came home, he was subdued and lethargic.  I didn't think he would ever be back to normal.  But he remembered Benjamin, and Benjamin remembered him.  That was the important thing.  Shadow was extremely protective of him, but Critter never had liked him since he stole a snake from her as a puppy.

Sunny recovered to be almost completely his old self.  He retained the singe marks down his side for a couple of months, but otherwise, he was okay.  Dr. Lacy later told me "I wouldn't have given that dog a 30% chance of surviving, much less being back to normal".

I was just grateful I found him so quickly.  If he had been there when another train came by, we would not have been so fortunate.