52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History Pets

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History   Pets

 A topic that is near the heart and fun to chat about. Pets, yes I and my siblings had pets.
 We lived on a mini ranch and we had lots of four and two legged pets. We had feathered pets and
 quiet pets, fuzzy puts, noisy pets but yes we did have lots of pets.

 We soon will no longer have the grounds that all this happened on. It saddens my heart beyond words to say the land is going to be sold. At least our memories can remain, unless old age takes those away too.

 I started life in Greybull, Wyoming on a huge Cattle Ranch called the Diamond Tail Ranch owned by
 Howard and Mareen Flitner.  They are long gone but I recently learned they have a downline descendant that has made part of this ranch into a Dude Ranch.

 O yes, I had a dog and many of my early life stories of trails and tribulations were attached to that dog.
 Mom and Dad remembered the dog's name but I do not recall where I put the paper with information on it.
 I will relate an incident from living with this dog I loved so very much.

 We lived near a very large river and it was not far from our homes.  It seems I liked to follow my Dad when he was close on the ranch. Many times he would ride horse and by out on the range or up in the mountains etc, but when I could hear his voice I would take off looking for him.

 After finding me out the gate and down the dirt road towards the river, Dad brought me home and told me I was not to ever leave the yard again with out my Mom.  It was not 24 hours later that I apparent saw the dog digging under the fence because he had heard Dad's voice and we were off to find Dad.  Mom said she stood in the kitchen window and watched me dig the hole deeper to go under the fence and follow the dog. The dog dug the original escape, I just enlarged it.  She called the dog back and spanked me and took me into the house.

The next day Dad tied the dog to one tree and tied me to the other tree. Mom said it was the response from me that really said it all. I guess I immediately sat down and started crying loudly that I could not go anywhere and really pitched a fit. I never tried to go how far the rope would go. I just sat down and wailed.

I also had access to a  horse I loved to ride even though I was small. I learned later it was Mother's horse that I rode.  Mom shared many of these stories with me in the recent past.
Mom and Dad both said I learned to ride almost before I learned to walk.  The horse was gentle and tame and would wander around a certain area with me on her back.  I have always loved dogs and horses.

 In Mom's picture box is a picture of me on this horse.

We later moved to California and we had cows and calves and cats and dogs, and mice and
chickens to be around. I was allowed to raise a pen of mice with my cousin. I later in years learned they were sold to the Pet store for snake food. That was not something I knew at the time I raised them.

I had a dog again while living there. He followed us everywhere we went when not tied up for fear of
offending the cows and calves. He was a black and white dog.

My cousin had many kinds of banty chickens to raise for his projects and I got to visit them once in a while and hold them.

Later we moved to a chicken and dairy ranch and I had a dog, again a cocker spaniel, goldish tan in color. We called him Goldie.  Alas this dog is the one that bit me with no reason. We never did figure what trigged the incident but he was never allowed near me again ever. We had ran and played and had lots of fun before this incident.

I was to feed him at a certain time each day. In the front part of the egg candling shed. I got the food and fed him and gave him fresh water. Returned all the supplies back into shed. I then heard Dad coming on the tractor through the gate so Mom said I could go watch Dad come into the inner Ranch yard.
The dog stopped eating came over and got a pat on the head and I turned and leaned over the rail to watch Dad come through the gate.  Dad was through the gate and getting ready to get down and close the gate when I heard a weird sound from Goldie. I turned and he bit the side of my face.  His bowl was 5 feet from where I was standing leaning over the rail away from him, and why he lunged or bit or even made a noise we never figured it out. He tore my cheek off except for about a fourth of inch of tissue.

I could stick my tongue through the side of my face.  That was so weird a feeling. Of course I screamed and Mom and Mrs. Moretti came running out to see what happened and Dad shut off tractor and ran to the porch also.  Mrs. Moretti got a clean towel and wrapped my face in it. Mom and Dad had to take me to the Doctor's office for stitches. (That is another whole story).

When after the War and all we moved to Valley Ford, Ca. in 1948.  My Dad and Mom again allowed me to have a dog. Tubby was the best of the best of dogs. As a Pup he rolled he was so chunky and legs so short.  That is how he got his name. He lived 18 years before we had to put him down, long after I left home and was married.  He was a great cow dog and friend. We did everything together. He got a half sandwich if I had one, so did my cow. LOL and they both loved Ice cream.

When I started 4-H I was given a calf to raise. She was a female later a cow we had for many, many years.   She was a purebred Guernsey and came from my Uncle's ranch, Ollimac Dairy in Petaluma.
Her name was Cupid for the white spot on her forehead was shaped like a heart.  She won me a few blue, green and red ribbons when I showed her depending on her age and how much we both learned.
So the Blue Ribbons came last.

She is a story unto herself. I loved my dog and my cow, they actually helped me to make it through school and on with life. They followed me all over the ranch. Cupid loved baloney sandwiches with lettuce and cheese.  She would butt me badly if I did not share so I learned to make her one when  I made one for myself to go out and start evening chores.  She also loved Ice Cream. She learned to open gates and would let the other animals out when we were not home. She learned by watching me open the gate every day.  We could not just loop a wire over the post we had to secure it so it would not flip up.  She could take a sliding gate opener and open it also.  She loved to eat the young pears in the spring and her milk would taste like pears. We had to be very careful to not let them in that area to long in the spring for the cows would eat until they got sick from the young fresh fruit and Vet bills were horrendous then just like today.  She would eat pears and apples but loved the pears. I just thought it was so weird how she always ate baloney sandwiches with lettuce and cheese.  I wish I could have videoed her doing this back then so you could see the look on her face, and her checking to see if the lettuce and cheese was in the sandwich she did amazing things with her tongue.  She and my horse Old Crow were always in competition with each other for favors and treats and attention. Tubby was always just happy to tag along.  I miss having a dog and a horse.

We as a family have had other pets but I will save those stories for another day.

My daughters family had a dog that had the attitude of my Tubby and his name was Skippy. There is something about Cattle dogs that are very unique.


Our very last pet was a tortoise we had for 18 years until the neighbors children dug him up and took him out of hibernation in the winter, even they have an interesting personality.