Andy

My family loves the Georgia Bulldogs. We live and breathe red and black and during football season you never have to doubt where we will be, either in front of the television, radio or in Sanford Stadium. College football and more importantly the Georgia Bulldogs are a way of life for us.

As any good Bulldog fan knows, UGA, the team mascot is revered throughout the state and throughout football lore.

UGA comes from a long line of English Bulldogs born and raised in middle Georgia. Leading the team to victory, UGA is possibly the most pampered dog in America, even residing in an air-conditioned house "between the hedges" during games.

Our neighbors, the Rogers, shared our same passion for Georgia Bulldog Football. Mr. Rogers especially loved his Dawgs!

Sometime around 1978, Mr. Rogers and daddy informed our families that we were getting a new pet. It seems as though they had found a descendant of UGA and together, BOTH FAMILIES, would be adopting Andy.

I am not sure if Mrs. Rogers or mama were aware that together we would be adopting a dog, but by the time the announcement was made it was too late to turn back. WE, yes WE, as in BOTH FAMILIES were going to be adopting Andy, a pure-bred English Bulldog with a lineage back to UGA, the Georgia mascot.

Daddy and Mr. Rogers had worked out a scheme. Andy would live with us for one week and then the Rogers the next, rotating between the families on Sunday mornings each week. BAD OMEN #1!

On a Saturday morning both families, excluding Mrs. Rogers and mama, piled into Mr. Rogers' Jeep Cherokee and headed off to pick up our new family member. All the kids were excited about bringing home our new little brother. The shared dog, this was a pre-cursor to today's non-traditional family.

When we arrived at our destination we were all introduced to Andy. An adorable white bulldog with minimal brown markings. At just a few months old, he already let his presence known as he would strut back and forth through the room, rivaling any high fashion model's sashay down the runway, backside swaying side to side as if it would come disconnected from his body.

The gentleman we were adopting Andy from had several English Bulldogs, but he let it be known from the outset that we were getting Andy.

I distinctly remember him telling daddy and Mr. Rogers, "Andy is crazy!" He would tell us how Andy and the other dogs would play and how Andy would clamp down on the other dogs so hard that the only way he could get them to break the grip was to throw them in the pool. BAD OMEN #2!

One would think that by now, one of us, ANY of us, may have started to rethink the idea of adopting Andy, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, we were getting our Andy, an English-Bulldog with direct lineage to UGA, the mascot for the University of Georgia!

So after daddy and Mr. Rogers finalized the business part of our adoption, we all loaded back into the Jeep Cherokee. Two grown men in the front seat, three kids in the middle seat and a younger kid in the back section of the Jeep. A bulldog roaming throughout the SUV, wherever he wanted to go!

Upon our arrival home, all of us unloaded the Jeep with pride as we were prepared to show mama and Mr. Rogers our new family member. I don't think either of them were excited and that lack of excitement became evident immediately when Andy jumped out of the Jeep and took off running.

With leash in tow, Andy ran through the neighborhood, back and forth as the kids and father's chased him like a run away fullback, both mothers standing on the sidelines arms crossed, with a look of "what have we gotten ourselves into" on their faces. Andy's first run through the neighborhood was BAD OMEN #3, this would be the first of many escape runs.

I don't remember who took Andy the first week, but I do remember that when he was in our house, Andy always slept with me. As a child I was rather slight, I know you can't tell it by looking at me now, but this fat 45 year old used to be the runt of the litter.

I slept in a twin bed and when Andy was in our house he would rule the sheets. Outweighing me, Andy would move in the middle of the night and push me to the side, as I grew, he grew, until eventually we overfilled the bed.

Back and forth Andy would go, one week our house, the next the Rogers. Like a game of badminton he would be go from one side to the other.

Through the years we had Andy, he never got housebroken, can you blame him? He didn't know which house to break!

He would get out of the house and run through the neighborhood at least twice a week and during those years the newspaper usually only got read two weeks out of each month, because he would chew it up the weeks he was in our house.

Each year at Christmas, Mrs. Rogers would put up the most elegant tree I had ever seen. Red twinkle lights, gold ornaments and an ornate gold nativity scene, it really was stunning. One day Mrs. Rogers came home to find that stunning tree and lights strewn from one end of the house to the other. BAD OMEN #4, I think the Christmas tree debacle was the last straw for Andy.

Mama and Mrs. Rogers did not like Andy and I think they began to dread the weeks he would be in their houses. I wasn't privy to the conversations, but I have a feeling they let the men-folk know, it was time for Andy to go!

Eventually Andy did go, he was passed on to another family with Bulldog pride who had a farm where Andy could run. One family.

After he was gone I missed Andy, he really wasn't a bad dog, just a bit confused. Wouldn't you be confused if you lived in one house for a week and the next moved to another?

I never saw Andy again after he left our neighborhood, but from time to time we still laugh about his antics.

Mama made a rule after Andy moved away. NEVER, EVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER would she have another house dog.....NEVER! She maintains that rule still today.

The Rogers got another dog not long after Andy moved. A small dog, one that was housebroken and one that couldn't turn over a candlestick, much less a Christmas Tree.

Without a doubt, Andy was crazy. But he was ours (and the Rogers), he provided a lot of good memories and some not so good.

A crazy English Bulldog and our connection to the world's most famous college mascot.