"DOGS I HAVE KNOWN"
A little mutt about ten inches tall adopted me when I was about five years old. Her name was Daisy. I think my father had trained Daisy to retrieve me when I tried to stray because Daisy would grab my britches and pull me down every time I tried to wander too far from home. I really don�t remember much about Daisy except that she was small with white fur and she was really strong.
My next dog was Daisy (II), a Fox Terrier. I also had a �pet� chicken at the time named �Herechickee.� Now that was one mean chicken because she used to chase Daisy II all over the place. Then one day Herechickee chased Daisy II plum under the house. Before I could get under there to rescue her however, Daisy II came out from under the house with a mouth full of feathers and old Herechickee never bothered her again!
Poor Daisy II had a really bad habit of attacking cars, but the habit didn�t last very long. Alas, one day Daisy II met her nemesis and she went to dog heaven after losing a fight with a car. Our next door neighbor was the one who helped Daisy II go to dog heaven and I never did like that neighbor very much after that. In fact when I mowed her yard I charged her fifty cents instead of my usual professional fee of twenty five cents.
In 1940 I had to live with my grandparents for several months to finish out the school year. Just a day or two before my parents came to capture me again I was prowling around the outside of a nearby grocery store looking at chickens and such in cages out behind the store. All of a sudden I saw a little bitty lonesome puppy dog sitting there in a cage by itself amongst all those chickens.
I found out that the grocer wanted $10 for that puppy and naturally I promised my grandmother I would be an angel for the rest of my life if she would buy me that puppy�.which she did. You know what? That puppy was named Daisy too! (In case you are wondering about all my dogs got the name of Daisy, my favorite cartoon has always been Blondie and Dagwood!) And if you are wondering, did I become an angel for the rest of my life? No.
At that time we lived a long way out in the country in Starr County on the Mexican border in south Texas. We had a plethora of rattlesnakes, javelina hogs, coyotes and all sorts of other exciting critters out there. Daisy III and I used to roam all over the country looking for those wild animals, but the only thing we ever found was just a few rattlesnakes. They say that rattlesnakes won�t bother you if you don�t bother them, but folks them things will bite you without even making their rattles rattle if you�re not careful! Anyhow, ole Daisy III and I were always real careful and we never got bit even once. But we did get shed of a bunch of rattlesnakes.
A few years later I came home on leave from the Air Force just in time to find that Daisy III had been poisoned by some SOB sheep farmer and had crawled under the house to die. That was almost sixty years ago I am still about to weep as I am writing this. Anyhow dug a grave and buried Daisy III in her favorite blanket and just sat there with her for a few hours remembering all the good times we had had together.
The next notable dog I remember was a pure bred Collie, but didn�t belong to me. By that time I was married, had two children and we were living in an oil company camp. One day I looked out my office window and saw several little kids, including mine, trying to cross a real busy street. That collie wouldn�t let them go across. He just kept herding them back away from the street. So I went out there and helped him get the kids back where they belonged. He licked me real good for helping him!
Then a few years later my Brother-In-Law brought us a little bitty Boxer puppy. It was so little you could hold it in the palm of your hand. Well, that one didn�t get the name of Daisy. The kids named her Princess. It just happened that the kids also had a great big white rabbit at that time. Every time we put dog food in the bowl for Princess the rabbit would push that pore little ole puppy aside and eat her food. Then one day Princess had got plumb tired of that and snapped at the rabbit and Brer Rabbit never did try to eat dog food again!
By the time she was grown she looked more like the Queen Mary! Princess was so big and mean looking she scared all the kids in the neighborhood. When she jumped over the fence and ran up to play with the kids they would be terrified and run home. Poor ole Princess was gentle as a lamb and just didn�t know how ferocious she looked!
We had just moved into a new home and I had planted a dozen rose bushes. The next day when I came home from work Princess had dug up the roses and had them neatly lined up on the patio! The roots looked OK so I replanted them. The next day the rose bushes were right back on the patio. Heck, I didn�t want any roses bushes in the first place!
TO BE CONTINUED
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