Meet Spike the Railroad Hound
In the summer of 1893, the Golden City and San Juan station was quiet, except for the telegrapher’s sounder, clickin’ out a message from the dispatcher. The telegrapher on duty, Hiram Wheeler, listened from the depot platform absentmindedly. Slowly, he knocked the old tobacco out of his pipe without lookin’ down. Something had caught his eye.
Way down the silver rails, shimmerin’ in the summer heat, a small animal of some sort was slowly making its way toward the station. Hiram watched closely.
It took awhile. The furry critter laid down in the shade of a small cottonwood tree near the tracks, but then got to its feet, not all too steady. And by now, Hiram’s curiosity was up; this thing looked like a small dog! And Hiram loved dogs. Much bettern’ cats. . .
And the Golden City and San Juan station needed a dog! Hiram couldn’t remember the last depot he’d worked that didn’t have one. Good for company. Good for conversation. And good for keepin’ the local mice from overrunnin’ the place. Maybe not as good as a cat, but then, nobody’s perfect.
Anyway, here comes this bedragged lookin’ pup of a dog. Couldn’t have been more’n six months old. Sorta bloodhound, sorta St. Bernard. With paws that spoke of a big dog comin’ afore long! And those paws were worn raw--no tellin’ how far he’d traveled. Seemed like far, by the look of him.
Well, ol’ Hiram bandaged up those paws, and fed that little fella. Cleaned him up, and named him Spike. Hiram figured that any dog with his grit had to be strong as iron. . . Just like a railroad spike. And before the next summer, that pup grew into those large paws, and was earnin’ his keep. Hiram even gave him his own pair of railroad boots. He sniffed out any mice that lingered too long in the depot, and the rabbits that used to live under the platform, well, they moved out right quick.
Spike and Hiram ran the depot at Golden until their sunset years. And nowadays, if the wind is just right, you can catch of whiff of ol’ Hiram’s pipe, and you can hear Spike givin’ them rabbits what fer!
