A Dog Named Beautiful by Rob Kugler

Author:Rob Kugler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Flatiron Books

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As a reservist, I’d always had another job, except while being deployed. I had worked nearly every day since I was fourteen years old, but being medically retired didn’t mean I was done working. It did mean, however, that I needed to find my new life, my new identity. I wanted to spend my free moments with Bella and Charli and enjoy the simple things in life. I loved Charli like I’d never loved anyone before. She loved me. Her letters every day during my deployment showed a level of commitment to our relationship that I’d never experienced before. So I took her to the observation tower in Mahoney State Park, a special place for us, and on the top of the tower, at sunset, I got down on one knee and asked her to be my wife. Through loving and hopeful eyes, she said yes.

The wedding, in Charli’s parents’ backyard, was picture-perfect. Marine buddies in dress blues formed the famous arch with their swords. My father officiated the wedding. For the first time since I was two years old, both sides of my family were in the same place, and no one was harmed in the process.

Charli’s entire family welcomed me as if I was one of their own. They were kind and generous. Charli’s mom crafted gifts and quilted blankets for loved ones. Charli’s dad helped me start my own lawn business. High and Tight Mow and Snow was the name I gave my company. I bought an old Chevy 2500 pickup that I nicknamed “Ol’ Red.” She was a single cab, four speed, built to work, and I had all the equipment I needed: a John Deere riding mower and a push mower, a weed eater, an edger, rakes, bags, fertilizer, extra lawn seed, and a little trailer to haul it all with.

Spring and summer, I mowed lawns. Fall, I raked leaves. Winter, I cleared snow from driveways and sidewalks. Bella rode in the back of Ol’ Red and often talked me into letting her ride shotgun. Before work, she’d grab the truck keys off the coffee table. When I’d open the door, she’d run right out to the truck, ready to work. And by work, I mean sniffing around yards to find whatever treasures she could find.

Bella came to know our customers as well as I did, and life took on a good rhythm. I felt peace and happiness within my newfound family. I had my beautiful wife, my own business to give me purpose, a perfect, tiny little house to return to at night, and our amazing, loving, and adventurous Labrador. Hosting barbecues with friends became the highlight of this slower suburban life.

But I had to mess it up.

During my time in the Marines, I did my best to boost morale, to lighten the mood and fill downtime with laughter. Marines would gather in a circle and ask me to tell funny stories, to talk like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Rocky Balboa, or to impersonate higher-ranking marines.

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