The day about my pets

After reading Tari's dog trauma today, I decided to write about my pets. I have had several, and although I am NOT a pet person. I decided to write about the great ones I have had.

My first recollection was my dog Mandy….I don’t think I have ever told you Mandy that I had a dog named that. She was the sweetest thing; I don’t even remember what breed. Anyways, when I was 5 or so, she had to be put down and I remember sitting at our front window watching my dad take her away and I just cried and cried.

So, we got another dog named Bucky. He was the best golden lab in the world. He would follow us kids everywhere around the neighborhood. I remember once I took him for a walk all alone, and our neighbor had 2 German Shepards. Well they came after me and good ol' bucky stood in the way and took care of them. They fought so bad and I cried and cried because I thought he was going to die. That was the just the beginning of him getting hurt. He got ran over 4 times…..but to make matters very interesting, it was by the SAME man. He was slightly blind and should NOT have had a driver’s license. Our poor dog had to have surgery after surgery to repair him from being run over. This same man also ran over my cousin’s cat right in front of my eyes. He finally got the best of Bucky, and he died. I remember they took him to the vet to try to save him, but he was gone. Me and my brother Kris prayed and prayed the whole time he was at the vet, but it didn’t do any good. I remember that was the first time I was mad at heavenly father. So, I colored him a headstone and I still know where it is today.

On my first day of kindergarten, my cat Ralph was born. He was a HUGE beautiful cat that was my best friend. He went through his 9 lives and then some. One of the worst times was when our other rotten neighbor caught him in a trap and let his hound dogs chase after him. My brothers were so mad and they snuck into this neighbor’s yard and rescued him. He had to have surgery, stitches, and had 3 toes bitten off. He stayed with me clear until I got married and then he stayed at my mom’s house. Hallie got to play with him even. Then his last day was a terribly tragic one. I was 9 months pregnant with Gavin and due any day. I got a phone call from my brother Kael and he was sobbing. That was rare for him. Well, he had accidentally ran over Ralph, killing him instantly. He was so sad, he wrapped him in the shirt he was wearing and buried him. I was hysterical with grief. I was so sad, and Hallie seen me crying and then she was crying, it was quite the scene. My parent’s were on vacation at the time and so we went up to console Kael. Well, to my horror, there was a HUGE blood stain on the driveway, and it was the middle of the winter and it was frozen there. I made G.J. pour bucket after bucket of hot water there until it was gone, it was a very traumatizing event.

I also had a dog Tucker. He was a Sharpe with all the wrinkles. He was such an idiot of a dog; I think he was a handicapped dog. Once we lost him up at Iron Springs. It took 3 days to find him. It was so sad. Then, the same damn neighbor who captured our cat beat him over the head with a shovel, requiring 200 stitches! No lie- My parents were too nice to be mad at him. They did mention it to him, and he said, “Oh, I didn’t know that was your dog.” Which was a lie. Anyways, he couldn’t see very well, and had to have a few eye surgeries. He also snorted so loud ALL the time and drooled a lot. His life came tragically to an end when I was about 16. We were living in trailers at the time because my parents were building their house. Kael again was the cause of death. He drove into the driveway and tucker didn’t see him and he didn’t see tucker. He ran him over and it was SO awful. Because he had so many wrinkles, he basically got skinned. To make matters even worse, he would not die, and was yelping and I was in hysterics and my mom was too. So poor Kael had to shoot him.

Kael had all sorts of animals that I did not call my own. We had sheep, hound dogs, horses, etc.etc.etc. When I got married, I decided because of the major drama I had experienced with pets as a child, we would NOT have pets. Well, I gave in and got Hallie a cat when she was 3. It was named Polly. It was a good cat. That is until it jumped over our 6 ft. vinyl fence and got tangled in some barb wire on the other side of the fence. Well, it roamed around and didn’t die on its own unfortunately. We found it and took it to the vet and it had a $200 surgery. Then it had to be spayed, and that is when it went crazy. It bit everything in sight, scratched, and hissed. My grandpa wanted to take it to kill the mice on his farm. So everything went nicely until it killed every single one of his prized chickens. So, that was the end of Polly. We will never have another cat, because after we had her, we found out Hallie was very allergic to cats anyways.

In September for Hallie’s birthday, I gave in yet again, and let G.J.’s mom and dad get her a dog. So now we have Dexter. He is so cute, but still a very naughty puppy biting and chewing and peeing and pooping all over the yard. We are going to take him to obedience school, and I hope that works. I like my kids to have pets because it is good for them. I just don’t want them to go through the pain that I did having to watch them die. So, I guess as long as it doesn’t get ran over, or put in a cage, or heaven knows what else, we will just enjoy him while we can.