Mom had this story to tell at Thanksgiving.
A beautiful pair of white cats came with the country place. The senior picture, or at least pictures, of their offspring. Remember the one of the kitten on Dad’s shoulder? These cats produced several litters of kittens that were just as white, just as beautiful as they were. But none of them ever grew up and eventually the old ones disappeared.
Beulah Rebecca was our first border collie. Her father was a show dog. He had performed at Madison Square Garden in New York. There was a Black actress at the time. Her name was Beulah. We enjoyed watching her so borrowed her name for our dog. Did you ever try to call a dog by such a long name? Beulah Rebecca soon became Becky.
Becky had beautiful black hair with white markings. She had several litters of pups. The father lived west of us although we never knew exactly where. He was handsome, too, and looked very much like Becky, only larger. So of course all the pups were black with white markings. We supplied all the little cousins with pups. Several neighbors were also given one.
Becky taught the traveling salesmen to travel on. One day the assessor came. He told us our dog looked very much like a neighbor’s dog which was very mean. We informed him that our dog was the mother. He never again got out of his car when he came here!
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Dixie, our Lassie type collie, came from Fountain County. Her owner didn’t want her because she wouldn’t breed. I said, “Just wait till she gets out here to our country place.”
Sure enough, she had some beautiful puppies. We sold some, gave some away. Finally we had her spayed as we had too many irons in the fire to get into the dog business.
One day we were loading cattle to sell. The truck was backed up to the barn door. Dixie and I were to stand outside ready to help if needed. Dixie ran her head under my right arm, so I stroked her head. (Just one stroke.) Ditto for several times. Then I started counting. Each time she put her head under my arm I stroked her. I had counted well over 100 strokes when Dixie decided she was needed to herd the cattle. That didn’t take long, so she came back, and this time started the same thing only on my left side.
Yes, I gave up before she did. We would be standing in the barnyard yet, if I hadn’t gone into the house.