Wild Dingo

In Loving Memory of ShyGuy

Wild Dingo has been remiss to publish the news about the passing away of it’s favorite partner in crime, Mr. ShyGuy, the basset next door. A few weeks ago, ShyGuy was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and within about a week, he passed away. It’s been a few weeks now and the time feels right to write a little something about the little dog who tolerated Maggie.

ShyGuy met Maggie in the usual way most dogs meet her, with Maggie launching a full blown barking attack while bouncing around like an electron. ShyGuy just looked at her and wagged his tail. From there it was best friends forever.

Maggie and ShyGuy became known as the founders of the neighborhood dog walking club. Maggie and ShyGuy would walk together almost daily, looking for trouble. They were so popular, that people who didn’t even own dogs wanted to belong to the club.

ShyGuy tolerated Maggie’s daily barking fits as he knew her to be a bossy broad. But he seemed to like that about her. When each visited the other’s house, they’d always chow down the kibble in the other’s bowl. Maggie would barge in to ShyGuy’s house uninvited, while ShyGuy seemed to have better manners, always waiting to be invited in before charging for her bowl.

On their daily adventures, we’d joke about how Maggie was about “quantity” covering more ground than ShyGuy, bouncing around well ahead of him by miles, while ShyGuy was about “quality” inspecting every square inch he covered, lingering over every dead animal, discarded TV dinner or mole hole. He taught Maggie patience. She learned to wait while he inspected a dead deer carcass or a carpenter’s discarded tortilla lunch.

The beauty of their friendship was tolerance. Each tolerated each other’s strange quarks. And ShyGuy was fiercely loyal to Maggie, backing her up whenever she barked at strangers or strange dogs. Often to his own detriment! Maggie sometimes would start fights with other dogs and then let ShyGuy take the fall. Poor Shy, he learned Maggie’s tricks the hard way. Still, he loved her.

And Maggie loved ShyGuy too. Although ShyGuy went everywhere with his owner, Anouk, on rare occasions, he’d be left home alone. And he’d let the neighborhood know about it. He’d howl sadly for feeling lonely and Maggie would call back to him letting him know he wasn’t alone. And within five minutes he’d grow quiet again, happy to hear her familiar voice.

Aside from Maggie and me, ShyGuy’s biggest fan was Scott, who would light up when ShyGuy visited him in the garage. Probably because ShyGuy reminded Scott of our beloved Moosh, with his low key disposition, sad but endearing face and general misbehaving boyish character. ShyGuy always knew that he could find treats and scratches with Scott.

By now, Maggie knows ShyGuy is gone. She sensed it the last week when he wasn’t feeling well, paying much more attention to him then usual almost trying to diagnose him. And when she visited after he was gone, she became sad and she still is. She so enjoyed his company much more than she let on. We’ll miss ShyGuy every day at Wild Dingo but we’ll remember the joy he brought to everyone.