Dogs
Pets make up a big portion of our
lives. We get too attached and wonder often why we even have a
pet.
My first dog - Oscar He was a
gift from my paternal grandfather Will
iam
Monroe Wells. He was a "rat" terrier. No papers, only fond
memories of him. He was the neighborhood terror. At the time we had
Oscar we lived in Dallas county and there was no leash law. Oscar came and
went as he pleased. Our dogs of today are envious of that kind of
freedom. It cost him his life, as when he was on his way home from
somewhere, he was shot and killed. Our yard man (Noble Nixon) found him
dead along the curb of the street coming up the hill to our house.
This picture was made soon after he came to live in with us. He weighed
about 12 pounds when he was fully grown. He had a brown and black markings
and white stockings on his feet. I don't recognize the house in the
background.
There was a long interval of time between
Oscar and other dogs. When I was about 12 we moved into a new house and my
mother found a set of tiles which created the picture of an English Pointer bird dog
inlaid into the
tile on my bedroom floor as you entered the door. She said it was the best
kind of dog to have.
As a matter of fact, an English Pointer
was my next dog. I was an avid quail hunter, and thought I needed a bird
dog. His name was King. I can't find any pictures of him. He
was not much of a bird dog. All I remember is how much pain I had in my
ankle after a hunt. That later became a real problem, as I had a
congenital flat foot that later required surgery to resolve the pain.
The next dog was a fox terrier
female. She was very noisy. I had a friend in medical school who was
a vet. He offered to spay her, as he said it would calm her down. It
did, as she did not survive the surgery. That was bad!
The next dog was a beagle named
Susie. She was to be my rabbit hunting dog. I had great places to
hunt when I was young. Owen George, my god father, owned property in what
is now Allen, Texas. We had many good days of rabbit hunting on his
place. Susie got sick, and our vet at the time gave her
streptomycin. She became quite deaf and was afraid of the woods and
refused to leave the vicinity of the car.
Another long interval, then came another
Susie, a Brittany Spaniel, the gift of a fellow quail hunter. She was a
wonderful pet, but never much of a quail hunter. She lived a long and
happy life.
Then came "Andy" a miniature
poodle purchased from a breeder in San Antonio while I was in the Air
Force. He was nearly grown and never really made friends with me. He
was OK with the wife and kids. I think he never liked me, as I was the one
that gave him baths and did the clipping.
The next series of dogs came when we were
interested in field trailing. We had several dogs, and raised
puppies. Susie was bred to a fine hunting male, but we did not think she
became pregnant. We took her to the vet who did not think she was having a
false pregnancy. She then delivered eight false puppies. We also
raised a litter of English Pointer puppies from a female we got from our
trainer/handler. We discovered it is best to buy a fully trained bird dog
than to raise puppies. About one in a 100 dogs turn out to be really good
hunters.
Our best hunter was a Brittany Spaniel
named "Pat." We traded "Dollie" in on him after she
proved to not be a hunter. We got both dogs from Delmar Smith in Edmond,
Oklahoma. Jane and I took dog handling training from Delmar and his son
Tom. "Pat" later won a walking field trial handled by Jane.
We gave up field trailing when we
discovered we could not own horses, bird dogs and have children in college at
the same time.
We did not give up the dogs. We had
several house dogs, starting with "Prissy" a miniature Poodle.
She was a wonderful dog. She lived 12 years.
She had a friend named
"Holly" who is still alive and now lives with Jane's brother
David. David kept Holly on several occasions when Jane had to be gone to
New Mexico to look after their ailing parents. Holly fell in love with
David's Yorkshire terrier. We let David have Holly, as it was a difficult
time for us. I was working all the time and Jane's parents were living 500
miles away and she went there often.
We had another interval of no dogs.
That spell was rudely broken in a very weak moment. We were walking in a
mall while we lived in El Paso and saw a pet store. We went in and fell in
love with a Cairn Terrier named Molly. She is our current pet and rules
the roost around our house.
Last page update: February 21,
2002
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