It was the summer of 1992, I was 6 years old and a few weeks deep into Summer Vacation. That was when our family dog, the only one we ever owned was hit and killed while our family friend was walking her. It was the summer I escaped reality and lost myself in video games.



I remember that evening vaguely now, surrounded in a hazy fog of fear and sadness. Teddy was a long time friend of the family who was living with us at the time. He was a brilliantly gifted machinist and carpenter who had a drinking problem. He lived with us off and on and would help my father repair our dilapidated house. He was intoxicated one night and took Sheeba out for a walk, but with no leash. She was hit by a car. When he came back to the house he was a mess and I remember watching him and my father on the porch through the front room window. My father was infuriated and poor Teddy just stood there in a drunken stupor.


It wasn't till the morning when my mom actually explained to me what happened that it finally sunk in. I was sad as a kid could get and it really messed me up. Without school to distract me I usually spent the day in the backyard with my brother and Sheeba pretending to be He-Man and Battle Cat or just goofing around playing fetch. With our protector and guardian against the evils of our imagination gone, my brother and I had to find another outlet to take our minds off her absence. Being outside just wasn't the same, so I retreated from the sun back indoors to my Nintendo systems.


We had a SNES, but it was still a fairly new system and the games were pricey so our library was limited. This meant the NES was still king in our house. Duckhunt was always a favorite, and the goofy dog always got on my nerves and I would shoot at him, but with Sheeba gone it just didn't seem right. The Addams Family was also a major therapeutic tool for me, the black background really "popped" and totally absorbed me into the game.


Sheeba was an outdoor dog, but our back playroom had a patio door that led to the backyard and I'd sometimes smuggle her into the house when I wanted to play Metroid. The eerie setting and music kind of scared me but I wanted to beat the game and with Sheeba there I felt pretty invincible. She would just lay there contently while I laid the smack down on Zeebes. I never did beat the game though, not that I'm still scared...


I think my favorite game that summer was Altered Beast. We had a Sega we really never used, but with Sheeba gone it seemed to call to me. I would play and imagine I was the centurion fighting through the unholy monsters. I definitely pictured myself in the game and Sheeba would fuse with me and we'd become the Altered Beast and kick serious butt. Even typing this now feels pretty damn cool.


My brother and I at our old house where we weathered the 90's. Notice the cheap moon boots and rolling dining room chairs.



Even though I played video games pretty much exclusively that whole summer, what happened was still in my head. Sheeba chewed on my controller a few times, so every button press I could feel the markings and the pain would briefly register. She misbehaved, ate her own poo and barked all night, but we loved her for it. Her dog house remained in the backyard until we eventually moved 10 years later. On rainy days when I could still fit in it, I would grab my Gameboy and play Tetris inside with a candle going. It was an old school handmade shelter, it looked like a simple shack with a pitched roof and plywood siding. My father was a roofer and even had shingles on it.  Eventually spiders made their home in it and my brother and I occasionally climbed up on it. Other than that it just sat in the corner of our yard, an odd relic of a former life. Since then video games have helped me out with a few more rough spots in life and I'll always be thankful for them. When life takes a dump on you, you just gotta hit Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A and START... now proceed to annihilate! Thanks for reading.