Borracho, he was a dog but did not bite...

Borracho in Spanish means “a drunk” but when I got him in New York I had yet to come to know Spanish that well. All my relatives were Spanish
but I remembered an annunciation like this and just by fluke, I named my own dog a “Drunk”.

I remember taking “Bo” and as I was training him and the North Shore Animal League in New York City thought I would be taking him back to Canada. There thoughts not mine and when taking him to get neutered I went and asked the lady whom was a veterinarian
what he really was as he had went from less than one pound to 30 lbs easy within a few months. And I knew that the description on his papers of being half boxer and half sharpie just did not fit. This was a great dog that so loved and would sleep in bed and you
would swear he knew more and could actually speak English and perhaps even Spanish as well.

The dog was not dumb.

In the evening there often was the case of going to a corner store to get something and for myself and my former wife, he was really a well trained dog and so often there was some situations – that if need be he was trained to act but I only knew the code to that – no one
else. I remember my former ex wife whom was Spanish went out to the grocery store on here own and a few guys approached her. Now living in the area that I lived was not Manhattan, nor was it a dump but there was some bad gangs that did hang about.  She was approached and I when she got home she told me what had happened. One very large man approached her and asked if the dog was trained. No one could make out what type of dog he was as he had a lost half of his nose which made him have a cute pig like nose, but he was half pit and half boxer and when she was approached – she did indicate that there was a name that she would say and he would attack on command but he was trained just so that he would be an obedient do most of all - which he was. It was good for that word to spread as then it kept her secure but “Bo” was a fun loving dog.

I remember while training him that I would be doing all sorts of things within the one hour training while he was a pup and there was older Spanish ladies that would be walking around and for example “ come on Borracho”, “Sit Borracho”, and after the training in the back
courtyard to the condo that we had, I would be coming back home and I would just utter his name, and there sure as guns there would be a lady giving me looks. You know if you have a dog named Sam, your going to say “c’mon Sam” well this went on for six months and
then finally during a festive Sunday with the family at that time, there was food and music and then after when everyone retired to the living room…Everyone was looking at each other as I remember.

In Spanish everyone saying, “should we tell him now?”  I had started to pick up on my Spanish and then they told me what the name meant. I looked at my “better half” at the time and put my hands on my face in embarrassment as here I came to realize where and why I was getting all these looks.

However I then called him “BO”. And to all the Spanish ladies that I may have offended that thought I was calling them a drunk. I had relinquished and then enjoyed the friendship with them all. Within the area I lived it was predominantly Polish,
Spanish – from Columbia, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and a variety but everyone was very nice and integrated in a very positive manner. The greatest thing of all was while “Bo” was a pup, we had got a baby thing that you were on the front of your chest and I would go and do the shopping while I was waiting to obtain my working papers. And I have never
seen so many women in my life as well as the grocery store owner smile when I came in to do my shopping. Bo was spoiled rotten yet at the same time he knew the difference between right and wrong.

I have never trained a dog before but in some fashion – it came naturally. And that is the story of Borracho for you Beverly.  I did have a divorce and the past is the past but the fond recollections of “Bo” were just too much fun, whom ever becomes the third in one’s bed and lays on his back and sleeps between two just like a human being. Yet at the same time “Bo” was famous for eating up visitor’s shoes if he had the chance.
I had a friend from Canada come and visit and his wife had some stylish shoes and the next morning they were in pieces. And Jim and I were sent to find a shoe smith that could place them back together. I don’t think she liked “Bo” that much but the entire neighborhood thought he was something else and
they knew this mistake with his name but everyone called him Borracho. He kind of really became a star within that neighborhood.  Why - due to the humor all to do with his name most of all. And he did walk straight!

That was then and this is now, but I thought I would write it for you as you had asked so I have answered. Axile is here with me and in time I will get a dog, I would love to get a lab or a boxer. Or maybe a Pug Dog as I think they are called.  But all within time...