Ruth - It Takes a Dog to Raise a Village: True Stories of Remarkable Canine Vagabonds

B oozer lived by his wit and charm in Marineon-St. Croix, a town of 606 residents about 35 miles north of St. Paul, Minnesota. Not everyone approved of his personal arrangementshaving his own bank account, being his own owner (as verified by his dog license), and being free to roam like no other dog in town. But when he brought national attention to this little town by being on Good Morning America, who could argue?

Boozer had his own float in the 4th of July parade, often accompanied by the Booz-ettes marching with bones in their ponytails. He once collected six write-in votes for mayor, rode on the paddle wheeler to celebrate Marines sesquicentennial, and regularly attended the New Years Eve dance and the Octoberfest held at the Village Hall. With no owner, you may wonder how this dog managed to maintain this lifestyle for almost fourteen years.

Boozer was mostly basset hound. He had a long muscular body, a beer belly, short legs, and long floppy ears which alternately touched the ground when he waddled along. Bassets do not walk: they waddle. They also look dejected most of the time because their lower eyelids hang down so far, a reminder that the bloodhound is one of the bassets ancestors. Boozer was unable to wag his short tail without wagging his whole body from neck to tail.

Unlike most dogs, Boozer did not wish to please people; he wanted people to please him. His behavior was predicated on that principle, and his life was a testimony to its success. Boozers other strong characteristics were total self-centeredness and avowed independence. You might say he was a highly successful street person.

The first time I met Boozer, he was lying in the middle of the little road that led to our summer cottage. I stopped the car; he gazed up at me without lifting his head. I honked the horn; he closed his eyes. When I finally drove around him slowly, he kept his eyes closed and concentrated on ignoring me. We quickly learned that Boozer was the new kid on the block. We also were told that he had strange ways. Boozer spent much of his time lying in the middle of the road, moving only when he had an errand of his own to do. Everyonealmost everyonegot used to driving around him.

I got used to his ways, but the day Boozer was not in the middle of the road, I knew something was wrong. We learned that someone had run over him. I do not know who did it and never asked, but most town folk suspected that it was one of the someones who did not think he was a cute, eccentric addition to the neighborhood. That was when we discovered that Boozer was nearly indestructable. Less than a week after the accident, Boozer was right back in the middle of the road again. Aspirin and rest had done the job.

Little is known about Boozers puppyhood because his owners turned him in to the Hennepin County Humane Society when he was about a year old. Once you got to know Boozer, you could easily understand how this happened.

The Humane Society gave the dog to the University of Minnesota Veterinary Hospital. This must have been a tough time for Boozer, as he was used in studies at a research lab. Eventually, the lab decided to give the dog back to the Humane Society for reasons that are not quite clear. However, Ann, one of the lab workers, had come to love Boozer, so she brought him home to her apartment as his new owner.

Something about the apartment displeased him, so he ripped up the sofa cushions the first day he was alone in the apartment. When Ann came home to the mess, she had a serious talk with him. The next day while Ann was at work, Boozer chewed up a very nice down comforter. Anns distress with his obvious displeasure did not deter her from trying to find him a good home. So, thinking he might like to live in the country, Ann gave him to her brother, Joe, who lived in Marine-on-St. Croix.

Joe was delighted to take Boozer because he wanted a good hunting dog. Joe kept Boozer outside and did not let him in the house. Next door, however, lived the Moffitt family with a little boy and girl, two and four years old. They loved playing with him and they welcomed him into their house when Joe was at work. Boozer loved playing with the Moffitt children. He was so pleased that he stopped going to Joes house except for food.

Joe tried everything to lure him back but he finally gave up. One day Joe walked over to the Moffitts house and said, Heres his leash, dog food, and dish. If this is where he insists on living, you take care of him. Because of the children, the Moffitts became his new ownersalthough caretakers is a more accurate description in view of the subsequent events.

When Boozer was not lying in the road, he cruised the entire village. He checked out new residentshuman, canine, and feline. He hung around places where he could get a conversation going and, most particularly, he returned to anyone who presented him with food. The St. Croix River flows lazily along the edge of town. Most of the town is situated up several steep hills above the river, so it often took Boozer most of the day to waddle up and down the hills, depending on how many stops he made.

When Boozer cruised, he often picked up other dogs who would cruise with him. Some were stray no-goods, but some were well-trained dogs who never left their premises except when Boozer came by. Many owners were furious when they found that their animal had literally been lured away from their yards, sometimes for hours of worry and anguish. Such were Boozers leadership qualities in the dog kingdom. We used to call these cruising canines the town riffraff. When these packs of dogs approached our house, we got our golden retriever puppy, Ben, into the house as quickly as possible. We were unsuccessful to the extent that Ben caught fleas from repeatedly sniffing this motley entourage.

Several citizens protested Boozers cruising activities so the city council passed a dog ordinance requiring all canines to be controlled by leash, tether, or fence. It is probably more accurate to say that the Council decided to enforce an already existing ordinance. Boozer was living with the Moffitts when this occurred, so they tied him up in their back yard. What a reaction! Boozer paced and howled for hours on end. A bassets bay is a very persistent howl that humans can tolerate for just so long. With a bassets stubborness, Boozer would not stop his baying except for the few minutes when he took food and water.

He found it unbearable to be thwarted from his usual daily rounds about town. At 10:00 AM, he was used to going to the General Store to meet the bakery truck driver who always had a day-old doughnut for him. Incidentally, this store is Ralphs pretty good grocery store, where if we dont have it, you dont need it, made famous by Garrison Keillor who lived in Marine-on-St. Croix for several years. After getting his doughnut, Boozer would visit some of the men working in town, locate the old folks with cookies, have clam linguini with the Sormans, arrive at the elementary school just when the bell rang, and find a kid or two who would share an ice cream cone with him.

One can understand why he found it unacceptable to be denied these pleasures. After listening to Boozers unceasing howling and baying, Claudia Moffitt finally set him free in spite of the leash law. It took him quite a while to forgive her for his ordeal.

Boozer, always on the alert for a better place to hang out in case things did not go his way, had become acquainted with the new owners of the marina, John and Sandy. In addition to their boat slips and canoe rental business, they had a little restaurant in their main building. On his earlier visits to the marina, Boozer had noticed that business was briskwith lots of friendly people who were generous about handing out food scraps. Boozer moved in.