Some Of Our Many Pets
In 1939 our toy Fox Terrier dog, Cutie, died. She was eight years old and it was like losing one of the family. A short time later a friend's dog had puppies. The mother dog was the biggest part Fox Terrier but not the Toy Fox Terrier. So we brought a male dog home and called him Skippy. He was very friendly and we all just took to each other.
In July, 1944, we bought a nice house near Seventh and Elati. Skippy had a large, fenced-in yard to play in. But he wasn't satisfied and would climb the fence and get away. He would get into a fight and the wife would have to patch him up. He thought the world of her.
One time he got out. He was gone about five days. The wife looked up and saw Skippy coming up the walk. His neck was full of rope burns. He got away and came home so the wife fixed him up.
Once climbing over the back gate he got tangled in the wire head down. The wife heard him making a fuss and looked out and saw him hanging there. She released him, scolded him, and doctored up his leg.
About 1948 we had a chance to get a little puppie which was part Dachshund. It had short legs and was very cute. Skippy shared his bed with her. After we got Snooks, the fun really started.
After a short time when Skippy started to climb the front gate, Snooks would run to the back door and had a funny bark. Soon the wife got wise and when she heard the funny bark, she would rush to the front door in time to see Skippy come out the walk and she would go open the front gate and make Skippy come through the house and let him out in the back yard. After three or four times that Skippy got caught when he got in the back yard, he gave Snooks a good walloping. He was not hurting her but he had his fill of her telling on him.
They each had bowls and they got leftovers off the table. Snooks was the smallest of the two but she had the biggest appetite. She would hurry to get through and Skippy would have about a third of his left. She would start over to his dish to mooch his food.
The wife would say Snooks, let Skippy get finished with his supper. She would stop and he would take a few more bites then leave his place. Alice would say Skippy are you through and he would look up to her with a grin. And Snooks would then finish it up.
We lived about 4-1/2 blocks from the store at Seventh and Santa Fe Drive, Denver, Colorado, and it didn't take me but a few minutes to drive over. The dogs would meet me at the door so I could pet them. I would say did you tell Mommie I'm home and the dogs would take off for the kitchen barking as loud as they could. Then they would settle down. I have never seen two smarter dogs then they were.
Alice fixed a sock with a knot in it and gave it to Skippy to play with. Snooks didn't like to play much. One night Skippy had his sock in his mouth to show me and I got a hold of one end and we had a tug of war. After that for a few years he would wait for the phone to ring. That was our code that I was leaving the store. If Skippy couldn't find his sock, he would go to the wife and beg for another so he could meet me with it. Alice and Bob, Jr., were working on Snooks to sit up. Skippy would sit up and beg. They told me one evening at dinner about putting Snooks in a corner to try and get her to sit up. I took a piece of meat and held it out to Snooks and what happened, she sat up.
We had a rabbit who we called Thumper. We kept him in a large box in the rear of the yard. When he wanted some lettuce or pellets he would grab the screen door with his teeth and shake the heck out of it. You could hear it a couple of doors away. In summer the wife would let the rabbit out in the yard with the dogs and they would play together for hours. Thumper died of old age like all our pets eventually did. We had turtles, hamsters, canaries, parakeets, and guinea pigs.
If a turtle or bird would get out, the wife would tell Skippy to find it. He would find it and hold it down until Alice would come and put it back. He never hurt any of the pets. There never was a dull moment around our place.
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I never saw much in the way of real affection between my parents. As I began growing up, I believe pets moved in to take my place. But in many ways, I always thought of Skippy as being my dog, Snooks as being everyone's dog, and Thumper being a companion for the dogs.
I do remember many afternoons in the summer when I'd go out and spend a couple of hour dozing in a hammock that was stretched in a metal frame. The rabbit would usually come over and I'd help him into the hammock where he'd settle in next to me. He grew into a fairly large rabbit and showed a lot of affection to everyone.
One by one, we buried the pets, large and small, under and old elm tree in the back yard and then covered the graves with rocks we got from the foothills before the houses and condos started springing up in the early 60ties.
Dad meant well with this story and does have many details that, due to my age at the time, I don't remember. But the further the story goes on, the more it loses it's way. Still, Dad kept trying despite the rejection notices.