Dana White, King of MMA

Ware was a great little Norman Rockwell town in the middle of Massachusetts. It
had the quaint little Main Street with mom and pop stores, a couple of churches, big
brick mill factories next to the river that ran through the town, and an old granary
building that was turned into a restaurant. Dana started school there, played peewee
football and little league baseball, took karate and trombone lessons, and was in the
cub scouts. He also took swimming lessons at the town pool right around the corner
from our house, and in the winter he skated with his friends on the field next to the
pool and up at a pond in the woods that the kids called Witch’s Pond. After a
snowstorm, Dana and his sister would spend hours sledding down the big hill in front
of our house with all the other kids who lived in the Village. Dana’s life was in fact
very typical of all little boys’ lives in rural Massachusetts.
I bought a dog, a boxer pup named Swizzle — the people I bought the dog from
had given her that name. She was one of the best, smartest, most protective dogs
ever, and Dana used to sneak her into his bed with him in spite of the fact that she
was not allowed on the furniture. Even when he was in high school, he still had her
sleep in his bed. I just happened to be looking out the kitchen window one day when I
was home from work, and I saw Dana walking down the street toward the house with
Swizzle walking beside him. Three older boys came up behind Dana and started
talking to him, then one of the boys grabbed Dana by the shirt and threw him against
a chain link fence they were standing next to. I started out the front door to stop the
boys from whatever it was they were up to, but in the few seconds it took me to open
the door and step outside, Swizzle had the three boys pinned up against the fence,
barking and snarling at them. She was very vicious looking when she would lower her
head, roll her lips, showing her canines, and begin with a menacing low growl. The
three boys were begging Dana to call off his dog. Dana told Swizzle to stop, and the
two of them walked off side by side to the house. Dana was so excited that Swizzle
had come to his rescue he could not wait to tell me how she had just saved him from
these three older boys. I did not let him know I had seen the whole thing. Those boys
never bothered Dana again, and word spread throughout this small town that Dana
had a dog that would attack you if you bothered Dana. Dana never again had any
bullies or older kids bother him for the seven years we lived in Ware.