…his name was Ping
The Doclopedia #3,499
Alt. Cross Family Dogs: Yoyo
Full Name: Yoyo Brian Cross
Breed: Westie/Norwich Terrier
In early January of 2025, we made it known to local shelters and rescues that we were looking for a bonded pair of young dogs. We didn’t care about sex or breed, although we said we’d prefer medium to small dogs, since the two of us were rapidly approaching our 71st birthdays and big dogs were just a bit much for us to handle, despite being in pretty good shape.
Toward the end of January, our friend Freda called us from Sweet Dogs Rescue. She said she had two boys, 6 months old, raised together from a week old, who were “a couple of characters that made me think of you.” Naturally, we went to check them out.
It turned out that the two pups were a West Highland White/Norwich Terrier mix and a purebred basset hound. They were active and rowdy and totally brothers. We fell in love with them after about a minute and, two days later when they were both sans testicles, we brought them home.
It was pretty obvious that the terrier, Yoyo, thought he was the boss. Like most small terriers, he was convinced he was a 100 pound badass, despite the fact that his highest weight ever was 16 pounds. He made it very clear early on that almost everyone and every other type of animal was some sort of suspicious scalawag who had to fear him. Except kids, people who gave him treats or bellyrubs, the two guys who lived next door, and oddly, goats. He loved goats.
Being a dog whose lineage came from vermin eradicators who would dig or go down holes after their prey, Yoyo partroled our yard and house every day, randomly digging a hole or two just in case. The rest of the time, he played constantly with his much larger brother, Duke. His determination to boss Duke around was often frustrated by Duke being completely unimpressed by his fierceness. Yoyo has never given up, though.
Regardless of anything else he ever did to gain our love, warning us about the Big Quake of 2029 cemented things. On the morning of May 10th, 2029, at 10:17, the Bay Area was rocked by a 6.9 earthquake that lasted 18 seconds and caused all sorts of damage. But at 10:14, Yoyo, who had been asleep in the middle of the living room with Duke, leapt to his feet and started barking like mad. It was a strange, high pitched bark and we ran in to see what was the matter. He would not calm down, even when he was picked up. We were all concerned, including Duke. Then the shaking started.
Fortunately, out house is a rare single level ranch style in a city full of multi story homes. It also had been retrofitted 15 years earlier with a steel reinforced frame in the living room. That kept us safe, although the house took much less damage than most. Yoyo stopped barking when the quake hit and started doing his own shaking. So did Duke and the two of us.
Once things calmed down, we went to check on neighbors and called out of town relatives and friends to let them know we were okay. That night, Yoyo got scrambled eggs and steak for dinner, as well as being told what a good boy he was. He and Duke also slept with us for a week.
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