PETS

Above: Hector, Rascal & Gretchen

From the time I was a little girl my family almost always had a dog around. Hector, a wirehaired terrier came to live with our family before I can even remember. He was just always there in my memory. We had Hector for about 8 years. He was an outside dog. I really didn't like him because he was bigger than me and was always so thrilled to see me that he would jump up on me. When my dad got got transfered to another city, we had to give Hector away. My parents found him a new owner with lots of land so he would have room to run, but he ended up getting hit by car. After we moved, we didn't have a dog for a few years. Then my dad had a customer who had a litter of small terriers for sale. My dad, brother and I went out one Saturday morning to look at the little dogs. We ended up buying one - I think she was about $25.00 back in about 1962. I remember my dad putting her inside his jacket and zipping it up to keep her warm until we could get her home. We named her Rascal, well, because she was a rascal. Even though our mother wasn't with us when we picked her out she ended up being mother's dog. I guess because that's who took care of her the most. That does seem to happen. She wasn't with us too long. She died on my mother's lap one Sunday afternoon. Daddy buried her out in the garden. I remember looking out and seeing that bare ground all winter. It was really sad. Shortly after that they built a new mall close to our house. In the mall was a pet shop. We'd always stop and look at all puppies for sale (that was before all the news on puppy mills that provided puppies for this type of business). It was while I was in high school that my mother and I were out "looking" at the mall and found the cutest little miniature black daschund. At first she said no, then we went home and I begged and pleaded. This was shortly after Christmas and one of my Christmas presents hadn't come in and was going to have to be reordered, so I said ---I'll get something cheaper and put the extra money in on the dog. Well, I finally convinced her. We went back to the mall and picked up Gretchen Lee Jackson. Even though this was supposed to my dog -- guess who she took to the most? Of course, my mother! Then my dad got transferred again and I moved into the dorm, where of course, I couldn't have a dog. Then I got married, but the dog would always be mother's. When I had my first baby we weren't sure how Gretchen would be with her since she'd never been around kids. When Kristy started crawling, she'd chase after Gretchen. In my parents house you could go in a circle, from the living room, to entrance way to kitchen and back to the living room. Gretchen could run a lot faster than Kristy could crawl, so when she'd get too far ahead, she would stop and wait for Kristy to get catch up and then take off again. They had a lot of fun together. Gretchen was around for 18 years, a long time for dog. After that my parents said no more dogs.