Fuzzy Memories

 If one purpose of a blog is to record events and memories from our lives, it occurred to me that perhaps I could list all the animals from my life.

Childhood: (anything non-dog is a cat and those listed together were with us at the same time) 

Watson (beagle) & Albert, Weatherby George Dupree (English setter) & Minnie,

Mosby & Tammy (gold cocker spaniel), Keetie (parakeet)

 

Adulthood: 

Ivy & Imogene & Howard, Calvin & Coolidge, Satchel & Sidney, Mamie (Coton de Tulear)

 

Grand-pets:

Daughter : Savannah, Sophie, Dusty & Marvin & Bowie (golden retriever)

Son : Yeti & Blue

 

          I was too young to remember Watson or Albert, but I have clear memories of how often I had to bring Weatherby home from my elementary school one block away. Mosby was a dim-witted cat who I think was taken from his mother too young, but our cocker Tammy took on the role, often dragging him around by the scruff of his neck. Fine, except when she’d decide he needed to be downstairs and you could hear his empty head going thump, thump on each stair.

 

          Ivy used to follow us around our city block when we’d go for an evening stroll. Howard was a little psychotic, but loved me deeply and used to look into my eyes and pat me gently on the face. Calvin was loyal and true, and was close by my side during my first small brush with cancer. Sidney, who usually brought us snakes instead of mice, would probably have shown more personality if he hadn’t been overshadowed by Satchel, the alpha.

  

        Satchel deserves his own paragraph. He knew the sound of my car and would come running when I arrived home. He loved a good game of fetch with a wad of aluminum foil, and once chased a fox away from the yard when I was sitting outside. Never have I met an animal with so much personality. I still miss him.

          And sweet Mamie, the one dog of our married life, came to us when she was five. After being a cat person for so many years, I still worry about some of the mistakes I might have made in caring for her, but I think she had a good life with us.

 

          People in my life have often disappointed me, but outside of the occasional hairball, rarely an animal.