" PETS I HAVE KNOWN!"
I loved my first pet dearly. He was a ratty looking rat terrier that I named Wimpy because he did love hamburgers as much as I did! (Only old folks will remember that name from the funny papers.)
Anyway, somehow or other Wimpy caught distemper in the mid 1930's. He shivered and shook so my mother dressed him in a shrunken woolen baby sweater and buttoned it up his back.
Wimpy sat shaking in a corner for days and my mother feed him whiskey. Whiskey? Now why in the world would a teetotalling, God-fearing Sunday-school superintendent even have whiskey in the house? I never thought to wonder until it was 50 years too late.
Wimpy survived with extra vigor but apparently a bad attitude because his drinks had been cut off so he bit the ice man one day. The ice man must have had a bad attitude, too, because the next thing I knew my dog had done a disappearing act. I was told that my parents had given him to a farmer so he wouldn't have to have his head cut off to see if he had rabies. I think now that I was fibbed to, but too late to learn the truth now.
I switched to cats for the next 30 years. My first cat had been raised in an apartment building and used a window box for a litter box. When she came to our house, she reveled in the freedom! In fact, she invited her new male acquaintances to visit her in the basement! The worn threshold of the coal chute was just big enough for an ardent suitor in squeeze in.
It wasn't long before momma had 3 little ones in the coal bin! She was all black, kittens were all black, coal was all black but we knew they were there. Several days after the happy event, the whole family disappeared, though. I discovered them that evening, tucked down between the covers at the foot of my bed! I think that cat was given away immediately.
Fast forward to the first cocker spaniel. His name was Brandy Alexander (registered, of course) because he discovered quickly that he enjoyed a bit of the good stuff! But he was a slow learner in all other regards. The vet arranged for a visit between Brandy and another blonde cocker whose owners wished for a litter.
Four humans sat for hours watching 2 dogs being interested in each other but poor Brandy had no idea what to do. Visiting dog then stayed overnight. No success. So both dogs were taken to the vet's and he gave them a lesson, I guess. Well, strange things do happen. Both parents were silky haired and the litter (3) had the kinkiest curls you've ever seen on a cocker! We gave our reward (?) of pick of the litter to a sister-in-law and that darn dog grew up to look like a poodle!
More dogs and cat stories another time. Th-th-th-that's all folks!
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