A beautiful pair of white cats came with our country place. I remember one of the kittens on Dad’s shoulder. These cats produced several litters of kittens that were just as white and 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 an actress at the time whose name was Beulah. We enjoyed watching her, so we 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 did know 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!
Dixie, our Lassie type collie came from Fountain County. Her owner didn’t want her because she wouldn’t breed. Mom said, “Just wait till she gets out here to our country place.” Sure enough, she had some beautiful puppies. We sold some and gave some away. Finally, dad had her spayed as he 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 Mom were to stand outside and be ready to help if needed. Dixie ran her head under Mom’s right arm, so she stroked her head. (Just one stroke.) Ditto for several times. Then, Mom started counting. Each time she put her head under her arm she stroked her. Mom 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 Mom’s left side.
Yes, Mom gave up before she did. We would still be standing in the barnyard if Mom hadn’t gone into the house.