Talking dogs & cats

Whenever you think of "country living", 2 of the essential companions around the homestead are cats and dogs.

I got my first cat when I was about 3.  And the first dog at about the same time.  My first cat was a black tuxedo cat.  I don't remember her name now.  But she was a nice cat.

My first dog was an interesting character.  His name was Herkimer.  His mom was a Beagle & supposedly his dad was a Bassett Hound.  He was a black & tan, about 15 inches high, pretty stocky and had a little stubby tail.  My Mom, Aunt (Linda - who is exactly 16 days younger than me) and I were at a local farmer's house when the mom was having the puppies.  This particular pup was going to be drown because he didn't have a tail.  I was outraged!  "You can't kill him just because he doesn't have a tail!"  The farmer told my Mom that he'd let it live if we promised to keep it.  I was very distraught, so my Mom promised.  And about two months later he came to live with us.  Now that I'm an adult, I realize he was exactly like a shorty Jack Russell Terrier.

He was a great dog.  He put up with a lot, living with two little girls.  My Aunt and I grew up together almost continuously.  Oh sure, we each slept in our own beds at our own houses (we lived on a dirt road and our homes were about 1/2 mile apart).  But we played together all day long, every day.  Herkimer was pushed around in doll carts.  He was dressed in doll clothes.  And he got to slide on the slide with us.

My Dad was in the Navy until I was 13.  But, whenever Dad was home he and Herkimer were out in the wood.  That dog could find a rabbit anywhere!  He was also a good squirrel dog.

Herkimer lived outside most of the time, by his choice.  He loved to sleep on the back porch.  That way he could chase whatever came into the yard.  It was his self-appointed job.  And since we lived in an area with bears, cougars and bobcats - he was our guardian.

I have so many fond memories of that dog.  He was a great person.  He lived to be 13 years old.  I cried when he didn't come home one day. 

When I was talking to my Mom a few weeks ago, we talked about him.  Mom told me there are still a lot of little black & tan Herkimer dogs out there in the Sweet Valley Pennsylvania area.  He sure did his job passing his genes along.

One cold winter day, a small black kitten showed up at our house.  And Herkimer let her stay.  We named her Sapphire, after a singer names Sapphire Ruby according to my Mom.  She was a long haired Persian. She didn't have the very flat nose, but still the long lovely hair.  She was a beautiful cat.  She had many litters of kittens that we found homes for.  Sapphire was also an outdoor animal.  She came in the house on occasion but not often.  She was a great mouser.

Now that I'm living out in the country again, we have a cat and dog.  We got Rusty when he was 5 weeks old within the first months we lived here (May 2006).  Here's a picture of him as a baby.

Baby Rusty

Rusty is another great mouser.  He's always bringing us treasures.  He also brought us a full grown rabbit one day when we were sitting on the back patio!  WOW!  Good job Rusty.  We got Rusty neutered as soon as he was old enough.

We got our first dog, Bo in the fall of 2006.  He was an older pup who'd been offered for free in the local newspaper.  I fell in love with him immediately.

Bo

He was supposedly a Beagle but he had a short tail.  He was taller than a Jack Russell.  He was smart.  He slept outside, by his choice.  He loved to chase rabbits and squirrels.  And he HATED opossums.  He caused a great fuss one evening because a opossum was eating his food!  John took the .22 and shot it.  That dog was terrified of guns!  He ran away and hid.  The next morning, John showed him the dead opossum.  He was totally uninterested!  Sadly, Bo was hit by a truck and killed in May of 2007.

We got Peanut later, in the fall of 2007.  A friend of ours, Chris, brought her to us.  She'd been living with a family who was abusing her and so Chris took her.  When she came to live with us, she was in heat.  Once her heat was over, we got her spayed. Here's Peanut when she first came to live with us.

Puppy Peanut

I realized that Peanut's black and tan face was so familiar to me... making me think of all my fond memories of Herkimer.  Notice that Bo had that same kinda face.  My kinda face.

What a good dog Peanut has become!  She got off to a rocky start with the birds.  She did kill 1 chicken when we first let them out.  But wearing a chicken tied to her collar all day has cured her of that.  She's never hurt another.

She saw a hawk kill a chicken one day and now she hates ANY bird that flyes over our yard.  She chases off across the yard after them, barking!  "Get out of here you bad bird!"  Hawks, buzzards... she doesn't care.

We let Peanut sleep outside when she wanted, initially.  But one early morning she decided to chase the coyotes off down into the hollow and came back covered in blood!  Thankfully, it wasn't HER blood.  But she's not allowed to sleep outside at night since then.  If she was a bigger dog, or we had more than 1 dog .. then maybe we'd let her sleep out.  But she's one little dog so she'd be coyote food.

But she LOVES to hunt.  She's a great squirrel dog.  And she's chased off racoons.  And opossums.  Thankfully, she's never tangled with a skunk.  We did catch a skunk in a "no kill" cage, but the cage was small enough that it couldn't turn around and spray.

We've had some great times with these 2 critters in our household.  Rusty is always into something....

Marcie and Rusty

We had some friends visiting in July of 2007, and Rusty slept on Gary's head!

Rusty and Peanut are both getting older.  Rusty will be 7 this year, Peanut will be 6.  They've grown up to  be such wonderful companions.  Rusty wants out every night, so we let him.  Peanut sleeps in the house at night.  Rusty sleeps in the house every DAY.  It's a cushy life.

Peanut, July 2012

Rusty, July 2012

We had another dog for about 8 months.  We got her as a young pup, and named her Bella.  Sadly, she was hit by a car right here in front of the house.  What an awful day!

She was growing up to be a nice dog.  At about the time Bella died my brother-in-law Joey and his family came to live with us.  And they brought their dog, Molly.  Peanut and Molly got along well.

Molly

 
Joe and Lisa and their sons had come to visit before and brought their dogs.  Moe and Weeny (Molly's parents).  Peanut loved playing with them.  We hadn't gotten Bella yet at that point and I think Peanut was lonely.

John and Lisa, Moe and Weenie

 Here's another picture of them.

Moe and Weenie

Peanut and Weenie

 Now that it's been a year, I think I'm ready to start looking for another dog.  Peanut is lonely.  Sure, she has Rusty to keep her company.  But that's not the same as having another dog to play with.

The past few nights, there's been another cat around.  Rusty got my attention wanting in.  When I turned on the light before I opened the door, there was a Japanese Bobtail sitting there!  What a surprise!

I'm hoping I can make friends with it.  Even if it chooses to be an outside cat, I can't in good conscience let it go hungry.  And so I'll feed it and try to gain it's trust.  I wish people wouldn't "dump" their animals in the country!  It's so WRONG!

I've loved animals my whole life.  I've never abused one, let it go hungry.  I had to give my cats away before I got stationed in Japan in the mid 1980's and that broke my heart!



I found a Japanese Bobtail kitten eating sushi in the garbage can when we got to Japan, and we kept her and named her Nezumi (rat, in Japanese).  She came back to the states to live with us, and passed away in 1996.  I loved that cat.  She was all white with green eyes.  God, what a personality!

If this stray cat is as nice a cat as Nezumi was, I'd happily make her part of our family.  I can only tell it's white with black.  I don't know what gender it is yet.  I guess we'll just have to see what happens.