Mullins and the Dogcatcher
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Hilarious, Heroic, Human Dog
By Ronica Stromberg

Dogs act exactly the way we would act if we had no shame.
~Cynthia Heimel

Mullins, the German Shepherd mixed-breed dog I grew up with, could not stand being confined or tied. He would dig and pull stakes from the ground, chew through ropes, wriggle free of collars, leap over fences and even jump through car windows. Finally, even though we lived in a metropolis with leash laws, my parents gave up on confining him.

Without being fenced in, Mullins knew the boundary of our yard and usually left it only when following my two sisters and me. He was our constant companion and guardian. On school days, he would walk us to the end of our driveway, where the school bus picked us up, and be there waiting when we got home. Mom reported he knew the sounds of the different buses going by and would walk to the end of the driveway only when our school bus approached. (Keep reading)