Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Collection of Animal Stories, Sanctuary Tales II
    A Collection of Animal Stories, Sanctuary Tales II
    A Collection of Animal Stories, Sanctuary Tales II
    Ebook241 pages1 hour

    A Collection of Animal Stories, Sanctuary Tales II

    By Giacomo Giammatteo

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Life on the sanctuary is not always easy, but no matter what, it's better than where we were before. This is a collection of animal stories, some funny and some not. They are all true and they tell the tales of dogs, cats, pigs, and others.

    Open up your heart and take a read.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGiacomo Giammatteo
    Release dateMar 14, 2018
    ISBN9781940313702
    A Collection of Animal Stories, Sanctuary Tales II
    Author

    Giacomo Giammatteo

    Giacomo Giammatteo lives in Texas, where he and his wife run an animal sanctuary and take care of 41 loving rescues. By day, he works as a headhunter in the medical device industry, and at night, he writes.

    Read more from Giacomo Giammatteo

    Related to A Collection of Animal Stories, Sanctuary Tales II

    Related ebooks

    Nature For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Dog Days

      Jan 23, 2022

      Dog Days
      8 min read

    • Article

      What Is a Dog?

      Mar 5, 2018

      What Is a Dog?
      16 min read

    • Article

      INTO THE light

      Feb 22, 2019

      INTO THE light
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ashes to Ashes

      Mar 16, 2023

      Ashes to Ashes
      4 min read

    • Article

      Ashes to Ashes

      Mar 16, 2023

      Ashes to Ashes
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Kind of Deep Companionship: The Millions Interviews Jo Ann Beard

      Jun 3, 2021

      When you’re slogging through your day, imagining what else is to come, and you remember that the minute all else is done you can sink down into your book like warm water, and be absorbed while you’re absorbing, is priceless, as they say in capitalism

      6 min read

    • Article

      Adopt don’t Shop

      Jan 19, 2023

      Adopt don’t Shop
      10 min read

    • Article

      ‘My Cat Would Show Up At The Door Like A Serial Killer’

      Aug 16, 2023

      I have two cats – Dexter and Grace. I did have three but Maggie passed away in November last year. I’ve loved all of them. Grace is from a cattery and is such a sweet girl, but Dexter was a feral cat. He came into our lives about six months ago, visi

      2 min read

    • Article

      Allison Pearson

      Aug 29, 2019

      Fifteen years ago this month, I fell in love. My husband knew all about it although he did warn me not to get involved. I didn’t listen, I was a woman possessed. I drove to Luton to meet him. The first time he saw me, he jumped up and licked my ear.

      3 min read

    • Article

      When It’s Time To Say Goodbye

      May 24, 2023

      I bought a black labrador puppy in 2010. Having grown up in a house full of dogs, I knew what to expect from a four-legged friend, but this was the first dog that ever truly belonged to me. She gave me endless fun for all of 13 years, and she passed

      4 min read

    • Article

      Ode to Joy

      May 16, 2019

      Ode to Joy
      5 min read

    • Article

      Faithful FRIENDS

      Aug 6, 2019

      Faithful FRIENDS
      4 min read

    • Article

      Just Do Your Best

      Mar 26, 2020

      “Hello, I’d like to make an appointment for one of our dogs to see one of your vets this morning, please,” I said. “Certainly, which dog is it?” enquired the receptionist. “Moss,” I replied. “Aww Mossy,” she beamed. “We love Mossy.” Moss has his fans

      5 min read

    • Article

      My Loyal Companion

      Mar 16, 2020

      Fifteen years ago, I fell in love. My husband knew all about it, although he did warn me not to get involved. I didn’t listen, I was a woman possessed. I drove to a nearby town to meet him. The first time he saw me, he jumped up and licked my ear. Wh

      3 min read

    • Article

      Hair-raising Holidays

      Jul 31, 2022

      Hair-raising Holidays
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Puzzling Pooch

      Mar 18, 2021

      A Puzzling Pooch
      5 min read

    • Article

      In Dogs We Trust

      Jan 18, 2022

      In Dogs We Trust
      6 min read

    • Article

      Animal Angels

      Apr 25, 2023

      Animal Angels
      5 min read

    • Article

      Sensitive Subject

      Sep 14, 2020

      Sensitive Subject
      5 min read

    • Article

      Last Moments

      Aug 26, 2021

      Last Moments
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Collection of Animal Stories, Sanctuary Tales II

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Collection of Animal Stories, Sanctuary Tales II - Giacomo Giammatteo

      Part I

      Dogs

      Everybody loves dogs, or at least it seems as if they do. I know it’s not universal, but at least I feel safe in saying most people like dogs.

      In either case, that’s what we’re starting the book with—dogs. We’ve had a lot of them come through the sanctuary, and there’s not enough room in the book to tell about all of them, but I’ll relate a few tales of some of them. I hope you enjoy.

      A Kiss Is Just a Kiss

      AKiss is Just a Kiss…

      …or so states the line from As Time Goes By, the song made immortal when Dooley Wilson sang it for Ingrid Bergman in the movie Casablanca. While a kiss might be just a kiss, most of the time, there are special kisses. I’ll bet you remember your first kiss, and maybe a few others. Some kisses are so special you’ll never forget them.

      When you’re writing about a kiss, you can’t just describe it and have it mean anything. No matter how great you are at describing a kiss, it has to mean something to the characters if you want it to have meaning for the readers. In other words, if a kiss is to have impact, it has to have a story.

      Different Kinds of Kisses

      Peck on the cheek

      Reluctant kiss

      Stolen kiss

      Sloppy kiss

      French kiss

      Passionate kiss

      Goodbye kiss

      A kiss hello

      A good-morning kiss

      A good-night kiss

      An I-want-you kiss

      An after-the-fact kiss.

      The list goes on and on. But no matter the kiss, it has to have a story. Think of some of the most famous movie kisses:

      Gone With The Wind, when Rhett Butler proposed to Scarlett and kissed her while Atlanta burned in the background.

      Pretty Woman, when, after proclaiming throughout the movie that she doesn’t kiss clients, Julia Roberts’ white knight finally came to get her and they kissed.

      From Here to Eternity, when Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr shocked the movie-going audiences with their passionate kiss on the beach.

      Casablanca, when Bogart reunited with Ingrid Bergman in his upstairs apartment.

      The Princess Bride. Who can ever forget the kiss to end all kisses.

      I was writing a scene the other night that had a kiss in it. I got to thinking about the different kinds of kisses and realized the one I was writing had no meaning. Then I thought of a story to get my point across. First, though, you’ll have to get to know my dog—

      whiskers sitting by couch

      Whiskers

      I’ll start off the story by telling you flat out—if Whiskers were a human, she’d be a hermit. To call Whiskers independent would be a gross understatement. Aloof wouldn’t come close. Anti-social would be closer to the truth.

      We have an animal sanctuary with forty animals, and twelve of them are dogs. Whiskers won’t sleep or eat with any of them. Dogs are pack animals; they’re supposed to want to live together. Not Whiskers.

      We first met Whiskers when she was two months old. She was living in a drainage ditch under a little bridge. I used to joke that she was like the troll from the children’s story Three Billy Goats Gruff.

      For about a year or so she lived by herself on the street. One day she got hit by a car and couldn’t walk. We took her in and tended to her. For a month my son carried her outside every day to let her go to the bathroom. He took care of her until she was able to manage by herself again. She stayed with us after that, but it was on her terms.

      Whiskers’ Rules

      She wouldn’t drink from inside the house

      Wouldn’t sleep with other dogs

      Wouldn’t sleep inside at night

      Wouldn’t live with other dogs

      Wouldn’t eat with other dogs

      Wouldn’t stay in the fenced area

      In return for our generosity, Whiskers appointed herself guardian of our property, about 15 acres. Every night for ten years, she stayed outside, through heat, rain, cold…it didn’t matter. She fought with, and drove off stray dogs, chased deer, fought coyotes and even held her ground against wild pigs, though she stopped short of fighting them.

      A Crippling Event

      A few months ago, while I was writing, I heard a noise outside. When I looked, I found Whiskers dragging herself toward the house. Her back legs were crippled. I carried her in, and the next day we took her to the vet. He didn’t give us much hope. We kept her in the clinic for two weeks, but she still couldn’t walk. We decided to take her home.

      For three more weeks we gave her pills and carried her out every day so she could do her business. There had been slight improvement, but not much. She still couldn’t walk ten feet without falling down. We decided we’d give it another few weeks.

      Disappearance

      The next morning around 6:30, I fed Dennis, our wild boar, fed the horse, gave Whiskers her anti-inflammatory pill and took her outside, then went to the kitchen to make coffee. When I finished my coffee, I went back outside to get her—she was gone!

      I looked everywhere and couldn’t find her, so I got my wife, and we both looked. Then we got the tractor and drove around the property—through the woods, around the pond. She was nowhere! I got that sick feeling in my gut. Something was wrong.

      We started at square one. This time I walked every inch of the property, calling her name the whole time and whistling as loud as I could. She always came when I whistled. This time, she didn’t.

      After almost an hour, as I was making my way around the pond for the second time, I heard a whimper. I looked, but couldn’t see her. I called her name, and again I heard a tiny whimper. It was coming from the pond! (A picture of the pond is below, or on the next page. The salvinia was much worse than this, though.)

      salvinia

      Rescue

      As you can see from the picture, the pond has been invaded by giant salvinia, a species of plant from South America that takes over in a matter of weeks. It is damn near impossible to get rid of.

      When I got to the edge of the pond, all I could see was her nose, and when she bobbed her head, a bit of her mouth. She went under just as I got there. I jumped in, and briefly went under. All the time I worried that the giant salvinia might be much more than an invasive plant species. Images from Aliens which I had watched a few nights before came to mind. Suddenly the salvinia seemed to have hands or at least grippers.

      I grabbed hold of Whiskers and tried getting to the shore. My headset fell off and submerged. My iPhone, always in my shirt pocket, went down for the third time, and I prayed that it was not the metaphorical third time like in the movies. All the while, Whiskers struggled to stay afloat in my arms, and I struggled to stay on my feet, as the bottom of the pond puts the definition of slippery to shame.

      To top it off, I must tell you, I’m not a water person. I have no fish in my ancestry. Not anywhere. I grew up in the city, and while we had a public pool a few blocks from the house, I think it costs a dime to get in. Dimes were better spent on cigarettes in those days.

      So there I was, slipping my way toward the very-steep bank, and struggling to keep Whisker’s head above water. Oh, and I wondered aloud, with more than a few curse words, why I ever wanted to live in the country.

      Whiskers, covered in mud

      I managed to get Whiskers to the side of the bank and push her up on it, but she kept sliding back. The floor of the pond had a steep slope and I couldn’t keep balanced. I finally found a foothold on a branch from a tree that flourished on the bank of the pond. I gave Whiskers one big push, stabilized my position, and managed to crawl out onto the ground next to her.

      While I lay there on the bank with Whiskers, I leaned in close and said, You damn crazy dog. You almost killed us both.

      She let out a small whimper, and then she did something she has never done. Not once in the ten years I’ve had her—she reached up and kissed me. That might not seem like much for you people reading this. It’s not

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1