Haines His Way

Treasured Pet: All of them I guess. "Bugsy Malone" was very special. He was the first dog that Colin and I had. His nature was so "soft". My most beautiful memory was of him playing with his puppies. He was the perfect, caring gentle father. We had been warned that a male dog might even attack its own pups!  All of our dogs have been very much "house" dogs. I have never seen the point of having a dog otherwise. I should try and locate a photograph of Bugsy and his children. The mother was Tallulah! Can it be really 26 years ago that Bugsy joined our household?

My favorite pet from the past would be my cat Wolfie. He had 6 toes on each foot and did tricks, including "sit", lay down", "shake", and even "roll over". He was born on a farm in back in Ohio and was the best mouser in the Midwest. He was also as friendly and sociable as you could ever imagine. When he was a kitten, he wandered in to the back yard next door and into a little girl's birthday party. After entertaining the guests for a couple hours, they brought him home with their thanks.

Best cat: Coricopat. DR Sandra was in the fourth grade when we found him in a pet shop. The pet shop was owned by a friend, and she always let Sandra hold and carry the kittens around the store to keep them nicely socialized. We weren't looking to get a kitten, but she centered on this one tabby with a white face. She wanted him so much, but Daddy said no. I clued her in a little about how to get something from a man. She sat on his lap and just poured it on. You could see him crack. Good lesson for a young girl.  ;-)

Coricopat was the friendliest fella ever. He was right there to greet visitors and jumped right up into laps and purred. He also played fetch with toy mousies

We lost him a couple of years ago when he developed an auto-immune disease and had trouble eating. We treated it as long as it was feasible (probably longer) and had to put him down the day after Christmas a couple years ago. He is buried beside the catnip patch.

When I was 9 or 10, the neighbors across the street were getting a divorce, and were having a yard sale to get rid of the unwanted things. These people were horrible people to begin with, but once they were married and had kids, it all went downhill. They had no control over their children. When the daughter would get mad, she'd run away for days at a time, and they might have called the police on Day 3. When the son was mad, he would take a baseball bat and hit the dog with it.

This dog had never been in their house before, she lived in a doghouse that was too small for her, and she wasn't even allowed to come in if it was snowing/raining/lightning/etc. She also hadn't ever been groomed. She was a Sheltie. They need to be groomed every months. Her fur made her look like a bear. Because she had been physically abused, she had some brain damage, and wasn't as alert as she should have been. The owners took this as a sign that she wasn't worh having.

So they put her up for buying at the yard sale. In Oklahoma. In the middle of the summer. It was more than likely 100 degrees, and she's in the sun in a cage without food or water.

At the end of the day, she still hadn't been saved, so my mother asked her what they'd do with the dog if she wasn't purchased. She was informed that the dog would be put to sleep. My mom offered to take her, but she wouldn't pay anything. Deal!

Thus we had Lacy, who ended up having to be shaved completely because her fur was too matted with mud and dirt and God knows what to be cleaned. She was afraid of any males for a long time, because of her abuse. But she was the sweetest dog I'd ever had. IT was like she knew we had saved her. Unfortunately, she developed stomach cancer a few years ago, and we had to put her down.

That was kind of long, huh. Off to work!

What a rainy day in Indiana.

Of course all pets are special, but I would have to say our first shar-pei named Autumn Memory, called Mimmy was the MOST special.  She loved us all, could learn a trick when you taught it to her once, knew us all by name, and loved to sit in her own chair and watch out the window - especially in the snow.  She loved to eat a Starlight Mint now and then and was valiant in her struggle against death.

We held her as she was put down and I told her to think about her black chair and her window and that soon she would be home.....  I love Holly the zaftig shar-pei, but I still miss Mimmy - she went away almost 12 years ago.

Love the pet stories, and the piz.

I lost George over 6 years ago, but still grieve. My sister Rikki found him eating out of a garbage can when he was about 6 or 7 weeks old... on her way to Pet Orphans she stopped by the house Charles and i were living in at the time on Olympic Blvd in LA. So, love at first sight. He was the smartest dog I ever knew, had over a hundred words, great friend, loved to swim and play. Bone cancer got him.

But when I was growing up on Preuss Rd, corner of Sawyer, we had dachshunds: Schnitzel and Strudel. These were great little dogs. Very smart, very loving. They lived a long time - Strudel was nearly 18, Schnitz was over 15 when they basically died of old age. I bet BK remembers those little dogs, dontcha, Bruce?

He of the scowling jaw, amidst the Panni posting frenzy, wrote:

By the by, td, thanks for properly sizing this for me.

You're very welcome.  It's good to see that mug of yours now next to your posts.

No way to start my HHW day - tearing up over sweet Wilma and why she was given away and wasn't happy.

I can't pick a "favorite" dog, so I'll name three, but only post about one: Gypsy, Cocoa and Katie. Gypsy I had when I was a kid in Toronto. We lived (for a while) over a store that my mother owned. Gypsy was some kind of Spaniel mix - black with white around the neck and paws - from the Humane Society. He was my best friend, my confidant and I loved him totally. I've posted about this before, so I'll keep it brief: As we had no yard, I'd let him out in the morning to do his business and he'd come right back. One morning he didn't. He' d been stolen - he would never have run away. I was devastated - cried myself to sleep every night. After he'd been gone over a month (in winter) - the morning of my birthday, I woke from a deep sleep because I heard him, clear as day. I heard him upstairs, through three sets of doors, on a busy street humming with streetcars and traffic. I jumped out of bed and ran downstairs in my bare feet - and it wasn't my imagination - there he was - standing at the door, dirty and a lot worse for wear. When he saw me he started to cry, as did I. We hugged forever and ran upstairs and I had my best friend back.

ONE JEW IN A ROOM SNEEZING

One Jews in a room sneezing
One Jews in a room plot a crime.
I'm bitching. I'm bitching.
I'm bitching. I'm bitching.
Bitch bitch bitch bitch
Funny funny funny funny

(They point their flashlights at the bed and slowly kneel.)

Bitch--bitch--
Bitch bitch bitch bitch
All--the--
Time...

Whadda they do for Claritian
Ooooh.
One jew in a room
Sneezing

One Jew in a room stoop--  
I stoop--  
--to sneeze

Good morning all!

Dog stories, I got a million of them--far to many to tell.  So many wonderful dogs friends I've had over the years.  From Sunday (bet ya can't guess what day we got her on) to Brandi and Bear (the current two) I have loved them all.  And the cows, horses, ponies, rabbits, chickens, ducks, goat, sheep, rats, hamsters, fish, turtles, lizards, possem, cats, birds, to name but a few, both wild and tame that I have known.

Sorry to have been E &T last night.  I had such a headache  I didn't even turn the computer on last night.  

I was going to go the the ren fest today but have decided to just be lazy for once and stay around the house.  Think I'll watch a movie or two and just veg.  

Enjoy your day whatever you do and where ever you spend it!

Of course all of my pets have been very special to me but I  shall post about my cat Buford. I picked up Buford at the Humane Society in 1990. He was three years old and we had 12 wonderful years together. He was the friendliest, smartest cat I had ever seen...all 13 pounds of him! My family adored him and my friends would always say that if they could find a cat like Buford they would actually get a cat!

Buford's signature action was to come up to you and bump noggins. He would bump your forehead with his forehead until you would start petting him. He also loved to climb under the bed covers and snuggle...I miss that so much!

Yes MATTH - I saw it years ago on AMC as "Ace in the Hole".  I read a Billy Wilder bio recently that talked about his fascination with the Floyd Collins case and the more recent (1949) case of Kathy Fiscus, a California three year old who fell into an abandoned well and was trapped.

My parents remember seeing the coverage of her rescue on early television and the way they described it sounds just like Wilder's movie.  There was even a song written about it that I have heard my father sing.  A tragedy, little Kathy was not rescued and died in the well.

I remember little Kathy, and I have a vague memory of watching the coverage on live TV.  There was a movie called The Well that was I think a fictionalized account.

Love Stan Chambers.  Our favorite news buffoon was George Putnam.