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For some reason, this week my thoughts drifted to the pets I’ve had over the years. There are special memories associated with each of them. The first dog I remember was a black and tan “mutt” named Tag. He had a bad habit of running after cars. One day when I got home from grade school he wasn’t there to greet me. My mother told me he’d run away. For days I’d sit and look out the living room window…waiting for him to come home. Years later my mother told him she’d accidently ran over him but didn’t know how to tell me.
Another dog I remember was Sugar, a black toy poodle. He was the first dog my husband and I owned together. He was by far the smartest dog I’ve ever owned. You could tell him “go to the bedroom and get your frog” and he’d do it. He loved football and flies. If a football game was on television, he’d watch the screen and when there would be a long run he’d walk across the room on his hind legs and bark at the screen. Flies? He loved to eat them, would watch and wait and then snap them out of the air. It was truly a sight to behold 
My favorite dog was a Bichon Frise named Comet. From the moment I first saw him, he was “my” boy. There wasn’t really anything distinctive about Comet other than he loved me so much. He unexpectedly died when I was on vacation in Hawaii and I still regret that I wasn’t there with him.
I’m not sure what made me go down animal memory lane. Maybe it was because I was thinking of adding a dog to my next book or maybe it was just post holiday blues.
How about you….any special animal memories (past or current) you’d like to share? What do you think about animals in books– love ‘em, hate ‘em, don’t care either way?
Filed in: Jaunty Post
Jan 20th
2007
10:43 am
Shana Said:
I like animals in books as long as they’re not written unrealistically or harmed in any way (I don’t really like it when people get hurt either, but at least they can fight back!).
Kim, I have a story very much like yours with Tag. I had a cat named Daisy, and when we moved from Michigan to Houston, she went from being an outdoor cat to an indoor cat (fleas were a big problem). Well, Daisy didn’t want to be an indoor cat and convinced us that she should be outside-only (basically she ruined the carpets!). I took this very hard because she had always been my baby–sleeping on my bed and sitting beside me. Now she was outside all the time. Then a few months later I cam home from school, and my mom said Daisy had run away. I put signs up all over the neighborhood and searched for her, but I never found her. Years later, my mom told me the cat had been ill and she had her put to sleep. As a child, I couldn’t see that the cat was ill, of course. I kind of feel bad for my mom because she felt bad having to put the cat to sleep, and then she had to watch me search for the cat for years.
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Jan 20th
2007
10:51 am
Dorothy Said:
I’ve only had one pet. A Siberian Husky that we named Bandit. At first I thought he was dumbest dog alive but I soon realized that I was mistaken. My ex and I got him before we had my sons. I didn’t know what to expect when we brought my oldest home from the hospital so I was a little leery, but Bandit slept under the crib and I swear he didn’t sleep for the first two weeks after we brought my son home. From the moment my son made his first sounds of waking up, Bandit would come running to me and would run between me and the crib until I picked my son up. When my son #2 was born, I was a little more relaxed and but him on the floor for Bandit’s examination and approval. I swear that dog checked son #2 out and then looked at me as if to say….’tell me you didn’t do this to me again??’. But again, Bandit did his guarding under the crib. Bandit never once snapped or growled at either of the boys, no matter what they did to him. At times he’d give a long suffering look and I would put him outside. Bandit benefited though, he got or stole food from the boys. But the best memory I have of Bandit is one night when I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep. As I lay there, Bandit got up from his sleeping place on my exes side of the bed. I thought at first he was going to go get a drink or would want out, but he first went into my oldest son’s room, then went into son #2′s room, then he came in and came to my side of the bed and then went back to lie down. All he was doing was checking on his family to make sure we were all right. We lost Bandit a couple of years later on one of our moves. My ex was in the USAF and it was during one of those moves that he got sick and we were told that it would be better to put him down than to drag him around the country. It nearly broke my heart to have to do it. But I took one look at Bandit and by the look in his eyes I knew I couldn’t put him through anymore and that he understood. I held him until he was gone and then cried for 200 miles as I drove away. Thank you Cindy, for such a wonderful blog today! It brought back such good memories.
As for pets in books, I love them! Be it cats, dogs or whatever.
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Jan 20th
2007
1:40 pm
Lacey Said:
In books? LOVE ‘EM! In real life? My dog is the *best* dog ever. Except she’s dumb as a brick. But if SAT scores are not a measure…the best!
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Jan 20th
2007
2:33 pm
Helen Sibbritt Said:
Pets are the best I have always had a dog or two and a cat or two as well. As a child we had a fox terrier caleed Princie and he would walk us to the corner shop and to and from school until he got sick and died then I had a pug that was my best friend he was hit by a car I lost my Mum 4 years ago and she had a miniture fox terrier and she now lives with me she sits with me always she is on the floor near my feet at the moment when I leave for work she will sit on the chair and watch out the front window till I get home we have 3 dogs at the moment life would be awful without pets our best friends they listen to us when we are sad or happy and don’t judge they are just the best.
I love animals in stories one that comes to mind is Not Quite the Gentleman by Jacquie D.
Have Fun
Helen
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Jan 20th
2007
3:32 pm
Cindy Kirk Said:
Shana,
I agree. I don’t like to see any animal harmed in a book. I don’t know if you’ve ever read any of the Janet Evanovitch Stephanie Plum books, but Stephanie has a hamster named Rex. In one book it almost looked as though the killer was going to get Rex…but thank God he survived. It would have ruined the whole book for me if Rex had died.
Dorothy,
I loved your Bandit story. I have a coworker who has a springer spanel named Bandit who is her baby. Your Bandit sounds like a true gem of a dog. Don’t you just feel blessed for having had him in your life?
Lacey,
Comet wasn’t the brightest dog either, but I didn’t care.
Helen,
I agree, no one loves you like a dog or cat. They are always so happy to see you and so supportive when you’re sad.
I read your comment on the book by Jacquie D….I thought the title sounded familiar….it’s sitting at the very top of my TBR pile!!
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Jan 20th
2007
4:46 pm
Lois Said:
Oh, I love pets in books, particularly cats. . .
I have a cat, sis has a parakeet and once upon a time we had two hamsters. The strangest thing among any of them is the second hamster. We still don’t actually, but if there are plenty of types of hamsters out there, we aren’t familiar with them all. . . because it was an all white one and the hair just kept growing, getting knotted and having to cut it. We always joked that it was born near Chernobyl or another nuclear power plant or something. lOL
Lois
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Jan 20th
2007
5:56 pm
Cindy Kirk Said:
Lois,
When my daughter was little we had hamsters (even bred them). My favorites were the golden hamsters (gold brown color). Funny thing was they were all named “hamstee.” Not the most creative, I know
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Jan 20th
2007
11:23 pm
Rainy Said:
Cindy,
I guess just like human characters, if you have an interesting animal character in a book it’s a good thing. I love cats so an addition of a cat in a story is usually a plus.
I’ve got tons of animal stories since we’ve had cats, dogs, horses, goats,chickens, ducks, hamsters and fish (not much happening with fish).
My daughter had a little Shetland pony when she was about six. Ginny was little but feisty and a bit precosious. One morning she escaped from her stall and got into a barrel of molasses that we used to sweeten the grain for the horses and goats. So, first thing in the morning, we were greeted with a sticky, molasses-covered pony (under the goo, she was white). The cats were walking stiffly about the barn, shaking their paws every few steps in an attempt to get molasses off them. Funny now, but not so much then.
Another funny story…We boarded horses at one time. Well, we had a horse, KayCee, with emotional problems and teenage girl who owned KayCee decided to get a chicken to keep her horse company and calm him down. It actually worked. KayCee and Mrs. Cluck were best of friends. You’d often find Mrs.Cluck roosting on KayCee’s back.
Although Mrs. Cluck’s fate was not to end up as #3 at KFC, she did have an untimely death when she wandered over to a neighbor, Patty’s yard and met up with a German Shepherd. Our neighbor, also a horse owner, was completely distraught when she found out her dog Skippy had killed Mrs. Cluck. In halting sobs, she called her husband and managed to chock out that something horrible had happened.
“What?” he asked.
“Skippy killed Mrs. Cluck!” she cried.
“HE KILLED MRS. CLUCK. MY GOD, HOW DID HE DO THAT?” Since her husband wasn’t up on any neighbor chicken names, he assumed Mrs. Cluck was a woman.
Anyway, after a little more conversation, he found out who Mrs. Cluck was and could pick himself off the floor.
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Jan 21st
2007
12:03 am
Cindy Kirk Said:
Rainy,
I can so identify with your neighbor….I would feel horrible if one of my animals hurt/killed someone else’s pet.
Your husband’s response was hilarious
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Jan 21st
2007
10:44 am
Rainy Said:
Cindy,
I agree. It would be awful to have a pet killed by one of your own pets since they are usually like part of the family. The teenage girl, somewhat rich and spoiled, felt bad about Mrs. Cluck but seemed to get over it very quickly.
The distraught husband was my neighbor (Skippy’s owner) and not mine. He knew Mrs. Cluck well.
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