It's a Family Affair
The love of dogs has been handed down through many generations in my family.
Grandma-Faith Baldwin,
with her black cocker, circa 1903.My grandmother told me a strange story about
this dog-something she never got over. It was at the vet's, I think for boarding,
and the vet told them when they returned, that the dog had died. Later they
found out he had sold the dog. Horrors!
And later, with her grown
children Hervey and Ann, Hervey holding the cocker. I've always wondered if
this wasn;t one of Gladys Tabor's cockers, as she and my grandmother were
friends.The lady at the end of the bench is apparently a friend, Alva (?)
This photo is from about 1940 ( could be as late as 1945, but Steve and my
father, Hugh, were apparently absent, which suggests this was taken during
WWII)
Later, after my grandfather;s death, my grandmother would write a book of poetry, Widow's Walk.( most people only know about her fiction novels.) Though my copy has long since disappeared, how well I remember the ones with images of Irish setters woven in.
And this could be why.
Uncle Russ( my mother;s brother), with his Boxer, cousin Jay as a young lad,
and my father, with one of his beloved Irish setters.This image is circa 1955.
Mom with, I think she told
me, the first male they owned-not Copper or Misty.See, they weren;t going
to have kids, so they had dogs!
Copper was a surprise my dad pulled on my mom. they attended a cocktail party on Long Island. Dad showed off the host's young Irish male to my mom, she said-how nice and forgot about it. On the way home, my dad announced-"I bought the dog."
to which my mother replied..."what dog?"
Misty was Ch Quailridge Sprite of the Mist. Paula McAteer helped them show her,and I still remember the postcards and Christmas cards from her after she moved to Bermuda.One of the dogs was a Rusty kid-I can;t remember now ( Rusty was Paula's great dog).If you ever read Gladys Tabor's stories, she had Holly, also a Rusty kid. Dog showing was a small world then, too!
In the last years of her life my mother told me she had sometimes taken Misty in the ring;I always assumed it was my father!( mom was the greatest to take to dog shows-she;d go off, look at what she wanted, find her way back without anyone looking for her, and never complained. Gosh, I still miss her....)
but by late 1957,
I not only had arrived, I seem to have gotten my picture taken with the Irish
setters for the Atlanta paper. My brother arrived in December of 1958. The
dogs were our guardians, our friends, our sleeping place...supposedly Copper
even saved my life, while I was still in the womb, by scaring off an intruder.
Copper was in a dog food commercial ,though he was sent home by Art Baines, the handler, and declared-too big to show. Misty's puppies were raised in...my playpen!Later she was stolen and did not make it back home. I think part of my mother's joy in handling the English cocker puppies raised by me, was in remembering back to her little red puppies, my father alive and happy, and Copper so proud...
There we are, my brother
and I, on Easter, in Maitland Florida.(1960?) Copper is hittin' the
lake in the background.
There would be other dogs, after Copper died, notably-Huckleberry Hound. But eventually, my mother just had to have another Irish. Missy ( a girl from Red Barn kennels), like most Irish, had to be imvolved in everything.
Here she is with my brother
and his friend Keith, fishing at Rehobeth beach.
Later, when I brought my new little girl Megan home, she was totally involved with baby care, just as the earlier Irish had been, with me.
Something must have stuck, because Megan has her own dogs, even now, 30 years later!They are English cockers...2 splendid girls.
I chose English cockers vs Irish setters because they were smaller, and if I ever wanted to breed dogs, it might be easier to find homes.
So I guess, looking back at these photos, maybe there is a reason I love the red and whites and orange roans so much!