Mack: A Big Dog in a Small Package (Part 1)

This is the first of a three-part Plants & Animals series. Look for Episode 2 in November!

The dog was an absolute mess. We were looking for a new dog, and so we visited the Lynn dog pound.  They had a small white dog that had been picked up wandering the streets of Lynn. We claimed him and waited the required 10-day period for an owner to show up. No one did, so he was ours.  We brought him right to a pet store to get a crate and supplies, but he was so filthy, the owner demanded that we take him outside.

We soon learned this dog was afraid of nothing. If you touched his food while he was eating, he sounded like he would take your arm off. He once chased after two Rottweilers, yelling at them ferociously the whole time. Fortunately I was able to catch him before he reached his target.

I wanted to give him a name to match his demeanor, and the bulldog hood ornament on large trucks came to mind. So, we named him Big Mack.

Although he allowed others to dine next to him, not even the largest of our pets dared to eat from Big Mac's bowl.

Big Mack weighed 9 pounds.

And he had 9 lives:

Life #1: Surviving the Streets of Lynn

There’s no doubt Big Mac’s first brush with death occurred as he wandered around in Lynn. We have no idea how old he was or how long he was out there. We were told that, when found, he had tags on for a residence in Chelsea, but the address turned out to be vacant. He had either been abandoned in Chelsea and somehow found his way to Lynn or had been moved to Lynn and got lost.

Life #2: Crash Landing

Mack loved our big, beautiful waterbed. The only problem: He was too small to get past the storage platform and onto the bed on his own. Naturally, we built special stairs so Mack could get up onto the bed.

One of the first nights we had Mack, he was sleeping with us and, unbeknownst to me, had curled up on top of my hip as I slept on my side. During the night, I rolled over and in doing so flung Mack off the bed. He crashed into the metal radiator and knocked himself silly. He recovered, but my sleep did not.

The incident did not deter him from using the bed, though. He would go down under the covers and sink in so you couldn’t even tell he was in there. If we let him have his way, he would stay cozied up past noontime.

Life #3: The Great Chocolate Caper

We walked into our living room one day to find a previously-unopened one-pound package of Hershey’s Kisses with almonds on the floor, empty and surrounded by chewed foil wrappers. We understood chocolate can be hazardous to dogs but there were 5 suspects in the room – 3 dogs and 2 ferrets. Two of the dogs were much bigger than Mack. We figured that if the animals had all consumed the Kisses proportionally to their body weight, they likely would all be OK. We decided to just keep a close eye on them for any symptoms.

The next morning, we awoke to find Mack had barfed up 20 almonds in his crate. He had eaten the entire bag! (In retrospect, it’s easy to imagine him vigorously threatening any other animal that came near “his” food.) We rushed him to the vet and were severely chastised for not bringing him in the night before to have his stomach pumped. We told the vet we had no idea Mack could have defended all that chocolate from 4 other animals.

The vet said dehydration was the most serious concern, so he injected large amounts of saline under the skin on both of Mack’s sides. Poor Mack looked like he had two saddle bags; his sides were so sore we had to carefully pick him up from under his stomach. The vet gave the pup a 50/50 chance of surviving the night.

We took him home moaning with a wicked tummy ache and sore sides. He retired to his crate upstairs in the bedroom. A half-hour later, we were in the kitchen and looked up to see Mack at the top of the stairs. Just as we spotted him, he took one step and proceeded to tumble and roll all the way down the seven stairs bouncing on his saddlebags and screeching in pain. I guessed his 50/50 survival chance was now about 20/80. We put him back into his crate and this time locked the door.

He slept through the night (better than we did!). The next morning, he woke up, was fine, and wanted to know what was for breakfast. (I told you he was tough!)

To be continued...

I still smile every time I see Mack's picture. A friend once told me “His name shouldn’t have been Big Mack, it should have been Quarter Pounder.”  He was wrong. The soul that lived inside that tiny frame was big indeed. Mack was the funniest and feistiest pet we ever had, and his story isn't over yet. Stay tuned for the further adventures of Big Mack.

Bill Boivin is a scientist, retired from 30 years of active duty with the United States Public Health Service.  He is a Burlington Town Meeting Member and Conservation Commissioner.  He and his wife, Jane, grew up in Lynn and now live in Burlington with their 2 mini dachshunds, 7 chickens, and Maya, a ball python.  Bill and Jane have shared a love of nature, gardening, and wildlife for over 50 years.  They have fostered, healed, raised, and loved a remarkable variety of animals in their time together. Learn more about Bill.