King Louis Roland the Dogue de Bordeaux

1. "The Ranch"

Sheree picked up her favorite Western boots off of the floor in her closet and walked toward the kitchen door. “Come-on boys, let’s go.” Her two, fawn color, Dogue de Bordeaux Mastiffs, were already at her side jumping around excitedly. As she shut the patio door behind them, she noticed her younger dog, Lucas, had his favorite pull-toy half-hanging out of his mouth. He was always ready to play.

She sat down on the patio steps to put on her brown leather boots that were embossed with delicate, ivory flowers. As she was tucking her jeans inside her boots, her mom pulled open the sliding glass door and said, “Honey, we’re leaving now. We have four horses racing today, and we’ll be back at around 4:00 p.m.” As Sheree turned around to reply to her mom, her dad pulled the door wide-open and walked outside.

He stood there looking down at her with one hand in his pocket. Smiling at her, he said, “Sheree, honey, Tommy brought Aiden’s Ride over this morning and put him in our barn with Apricot. He’s going to stay here overnight. There’s going to be a lot of activity at Bill’s house tonight, and I don’t want anyone sneaking selfies with my young colt. Can you please keep an eye on him until we get back?”

She smiled at her dad and replied, “Yes, of course I will.”

Smiling broadly now, he looked down at Lucas who was jumping around playfully with the pull-toy still in his mouth. He said, “Luke, what’s in your mouth? Give me that toy.” He reached down and grabbed the end of the pull-toy, and they proceed to have a serious tug-of-war.

Luke’s father, Louis, playfully started jumping around, growling and barking, wanting to get in on the action. When they finally stopped playing, he said, “Louis looks like he’s put on some weight. Have you weighed him recently?” Putting both of his arms around the massive dog’s chest, he lifted him up enough so that his two front paws were up off the ground. “Sure thing. He’s at least 155 lbs.”

Shocked, Sheree sat there with her mouth open, replying, “I’m feeding him the same amount of food every day. He always weighed around 145 lbs. I don’t know how this happened?”

As he set the dog down, her dad said, “Honey, he’s over five years old now and it’s easy to gain weight. Let’s get him back down to 145 lbs. as soon as we can. “Louis, we want you to live a long time.”

As her parents walked back into the house, she stood up and blew them a kiss, “Good luck today, be careful.”

She walked her dogs toward the paddock to get Apricot, her miniature horse. But first, she walked inside the barn where Aiden’s Ride, the young red colt, was visiting for the day. She talked to him softly, stroking his head and neck. “I’ll come back in a little while and brush you and let you out into the large paddock. Ok, Big Red?” But now, she was feeling guilty for not going along with her parents. She sighed, and her shoulders dropped down.

Ten minutes later when they entered the nearby track. Shaking her head, she told herself, “I need to get out of this rut I’ve been in for the last year.” Then she noticed a drone flying high above her ranch. Irritated now, she put in her earbuds. Her iPod started playing the song, “White Bird” by David LaFlamme.

2. "Haystack"

Hours later, it’s lunch time now for the nearly five-week old Dogue de Bordeaux puppies, and Sheree could hear them moving around and fussing from inside the study. “I’m coming little ones.”

When she let their mom, Tiger Lili, out of the pen with the puppies, immediately they started whining loudly. They knew their food would be arriving soon.

She called to them as she sat down nearby on the floor, “Come here Apollo, come here Princess Violet.” They ran around jumping into her lap. They were cute with their bright blue eyes and soft fur.

She glanced out the kitchen window as she prepared the puppies food, and noticed Louis was asleep under the big apple tree in the front courtyard. He was sleeping on his back with his legs up in the air. She listened closely to see if she could hear him snoring through the window. He always made her smile.

After lunch, Sheree cleaned up the mess and wiped six little puppy faces clean, and then they all fell asleep in a pile on top of fresh blankets. She let Lili back into the house and then fed mom a small snack. “Good girl Lili, you’re a good mommy.” Luke stayed outside, and everything was quiet for a moment.

She started feeling sad and began thinking about her brother, Aiden, again. He was missing out on so much about the family.

But then the phone rang, and it was her mom, who announced, “The retirement ceremony is over, and Haystack won his last official race. Bill and the family are taking him back to the stables, and your dad and I are waiting for them in the Club Bar.

“Congratulations Mom.” Before her mom could ask her a bunch of questions Sheree said, “Mom, I have to go now. John will be here any second to check on the puppies.”

Right after Sheree put the phone down it rang again, and this time it was Katie. She wanted to know, “What are you doing? What are you wearing to the party tonight?”

As Katie started to give Sheree a blow-by-blow description of the day at the track, she began shouting, “Hey, stop it! Help, help! Robert, Daddy!” It sounded like Katie was waiving her phone around while she was screaming, but Sheree could hear more voices in the background. Then she heard Katie’s mom holler at her, “Get down! Get down.” But now, it sounded like gunshots were being fired.

Sheree reached over the kitchen counter and grabbed the house phone and dialed her brother who was also a local deputy sheriff. She shouted into the phone. “Jeff, something is happening in the stables at the track. I was on the phone with Katie and she started screaming, and I heard gunshots. Her entire family is in the stable area with Haystack.”

Her brother was already on duty, and he told her, “I’ll call you right back.” First, he called the incident into dispatch. Then he turned on his emergency siren and lights, and swung his patrol car around, heading for the Del Mar Race Track.

As Sheree was frantically pacing in the kitchen she looked out the window and saw Louis was now sitting up and looking across the private road toward Katie’s house. When she noticed the florist’s truck parked outside, she thought to herself, “Huh, they’re delivering again?”

Then suddenly, she heard screaming coming from Katie’s house and a few seconds later a gunshot! Then, a bullet shattered her kitchen window! She heard more screaming and then another gunshot. She still had both phones in her hand as she ran into the study and called Jeff again.

“There’s gunfire at Katie’s house,” she yelled. “A bullet went through our kitchen window and glass went all over nearly hitting me! Louis was sleeping in the front yard. I have to find him.”

Jeff shouted, “No, stay in the study with Lili and the puppies and lock the study door. Is Luke with you?”

“He’s in the back yard.” She shook inside.

Jeff repeated “Stay in the house. Get dad’s shotgun out of the closet. Protect yourself if you have to.”

After he called dispatch again, Jeff had one more call to make, this time to his brother’s best friend. He shouted into the phone, “Samuel, there’s a robbery happening at Bill’s ranch, shots fired. Everyone’s at the track, Consuelo and Sheree are home.”

Now Sheree heard Consuelo screaming again, she told Lili “Stay girl.” She ran into the living room, and slowly peered through the drapes. She couldn’t find Louis, but now she saw something flying over the fence on the side of the house. Oh no, that was Luke! She could feel herself shaking, and her mind was racing. A few seconds later she heard more shouting, and another gunshot.

It took all of her courage to open the front door and walk outside with her dad’s shotgun. She could see John’s van was parked down the street, but she did not see him anywhere.

Holding her breath, she quietly walked across the road between the houses and slowly peered around the truck. Then, she saw John standing on the grass near the front door. Still shaking, she quietly said, “John, is it ok?” But now he was pointing a gun at a big, hairy, dark-haired man lying on the ground on his back. And, she saw her massive dog, Louis, was lying across the man’s chest, with the robber’s arm firmly in his huge mouth.

Consuelo was screaming. “Good boy, King Louis.” As she sat on the ground holding her upper arm with her hand.

The hairy man was kicking his legs into the air and shouting. “Get the dog off me, I can’t breathe, it’s breaking my damn arm.”

Sheree stood there, frozen, unable to move. John shouted to her, “I’m on a call with Emergency 911. Stay here with me! The dogs are ok.” Then he yelled at the big man, “Stay where you are and don’t move.” Sheree noticed the blood on Consuelo’s arm, and Louis’s bloody thigh.

She was frantically looking around for her younger dog, Luke. She hollered, “Where’s Luke? Luke, Luke!”

Now she saw her young dog and another man in a tug-of-war, a skinny man who was carrying a small cooler. He was trying to get inside the cab of the florist truck, and he was hitting Luke with the cooler. But Luke had ahold of his pant leg and would not let go.

Sheree screamed at the robber, “Stop it, stop it, leave my dog alone!”

John cried out, “Sheree, stay where you are.”

But, she ran up to the front of the truck to help her dog. Mainly, she stood there, screaming. “Leave my dog alone, stop it, stop it.”

When the man shouted, “Lady, I’m going to strangle your dog.” She really got mad and shouted back, “Stop now or I’m going to call my big dog over.”

Luke had now succeeded in pulling the skinny man off from the car seat onto the ground. But, when the lower part of his pants ripped off, the man was now free.

For a second, Sheree froze. Before she could run away, the skinny man jumped up and lunged at her. Now, she was screaming. “Help, help.” Luke started jumping up and grabbing the man by his shirt ripping it. The skinny man had already dropped the cooler, and now had a hold of Sheree by her waist. She screamed, “Louis, Louis, come here! Help.”

The robber was squeezing her waist so hard with his arms, and it was getting hard to breathe. In a panic, she put her hands behind her head and tried clawing at his face, and then she lifted up her feet. She knew she could scream one more time before she passed out.

With all of her strength she cried out, “Louis, Louis, help! Aiden, help.”

After hearing her screams, her massive dog released the first robber’s arm and jumped off of his chest. Louis ran around the truck. Slobber and foam were flying all around and he was snorting like a lion.

He came around the corner stealth like, and he opened his big mouth so wide you could see down his throat. He ran straight into the man with a powerful force, biting down on the man’s leg, right below his knee-cap. It was the same leg Luke had ripped off his pants leg.

The skinny robber was now lying on his side, and now the big dog was standing on top of the man’s chest. Louis was looking down right into his face, drooling all over. It seemed as though he was daring the man to move.

Sheree had collapsed on the ground in a heap after nearly passing out. and Luke was now leaning against her and he was barking loudly at the robber on the ground nearby.

In the chaos, John told Consuelo, “Take this gun, stay here with this man.” He ran around the truck, picking up the shotgun as he ran toward Sheree. He grabbed her arm and not so very gently dragged her away from Louis and the robber. She hollered back at him, “I’m ok. Help me up.”

But now, the first robber knew a break when he saw it. As he slowly rolled over and managed to sit up, he told Consuelo, “I know you’re a nice lady, you’re not going to shoot me as I run away, are you?” He slowly stood up and took off running. He held his injured arm as he ran around the other side of the truck. First, he grabbed the cooler off of the ground, while the two dogs were distracted, then he made a run for the property wall.

Consuelo ran around the front of the truck, screaming, “John, chase the big man. Stop him.”

But John ignored her.

Consuelo was waiving her good arm around and screaming at everyone, “He’s getting away! John, go stop him.” But instead, Luke saw the robber running away, and took off chasing after the big man toward the property wall.

John started waiving his hands at Consuelo and shaking his head. “No! Stay here! Give me the gun.”

While Sheree held Louis's head in her arms, she softly told him, “My baby Louis, Aiden’s baby. Good boy.”

Consuelo had gone over and sat down in the shade near the house and was loudly sobbing. Sheree took Louis over to sit near her. She told Consuelo, “I have to go help Luke! Can you please stay here with Louis and wait for Jeff?” Through her tears, Consuelo nodded her head and said, “Yes.” Sheree whispered, “Thank you.” Then she jumped up and bolted toward the property wall.

Luke had caught up to the robber at the property wall and had grabbed ahold of his pants he was tugging as hard as he could. But, before the dog could pull the big, hairy man down, his pants tugged completely off, then Luke managed to grab onto his shoe. The hairy man was screaming “I’m going to kill you.” Soon his shoe came off, and he was able to get his leg over the wall and he disappeared.

Sheree panicked and shouted, “Luke, stop, stop.” This didn’t deter her dog, he easily jumped up, and then over the wall and toward the public street.

John came running over to Sheree, grabbing her by the arm and shouting at her. “Stay back, you’re going to get hurt again! Luke can handle himself.”

She wriggled out of his grip and took off running and she climbed over the wall.

Cursing loudly, John turned around and rushed back over to the injured robber, but now Consuelo was standing over him. She was pointing the robber’s own gun at him and shouting at him. As John reached her and grabbed the gun, he angerly said, “Consuelo, the man can’t walk.”

Consuelo shouted back, “Well good thing! You let the other man get away! Thank God Louis and Luke were here to help us.”

John shook his head and called Jeff again. “Where are you? “Where are the cops? Things got bad here. We’ve got a serious injury. Sheree has jumped over the property wall chasing after Luke and one of the robbers. He’s really a big guy, and, he lost his pants and one shoe. They’re on the street near the fire station.”

John could hear Jeff cursing loudly. “I’m around the corner, be there in thirty seconds.” John stood over the injured man shaking his head, he knew this was bad.

Suddenly, a blue Jeep drove up to the ranch house and came to a screeching stop. A man got out and ran toward the scene shouting, “Consuelo, are you alright? My wife and I heard gunshots and you screaming.” When he got closer to her, he said, “Your arm is bloody, let me help you.”

It was the neighbor from the next ranch, Mr. Silva, a retired physician. He was carrying two, large first-aid bags. When he got closer, Consuelo started shouting. “The two robbers tried to shoot us! Louis and Luke saved us.” Mr. Silva put one of his bags down so John could use the first aid items in the bag on the injured man on the ground.

Mr. Silva gently took Consuelo's arm, “Come sit down. Calm down and let me look at your arm.” She was sobbing loudly again and replied. “I want you to look at King Louis first. Please make sure he’s ok.”

They walked over to the big dog sitting in the shade near the front door, he was panting and drooling very heavily. Mr. Silva bent down and said, “Hi Louis, let me look at your leg.” First, he gently wiped the slobber off of the dog’s face with a cold, wet towel and felt his head and nose. After a minute, he looked over at Consuelo and said, “Consuelo, we’ll fix him up and then give him a little bit of water, he’ll be ok.”

When she was sure King Louis was ok, Consuelo sat down next to him on the front porch. He kindly told her, “Consuelo, you really need an x-ray. I can drive you to the hospital?” But defiantly, she said, “No, I want to stay until Sheree and Baby Luke return.”