The Dog (preface)

Picture from here.

I think that your understanding of our family and the dog might benefit from a brief history lesson.

Pet #1   A precious orange and white tabby that chased flashlight lights and loved to watch "Are You Being Served" and "Lawrence Welk." We moved.  He went on to live with my parents and brought them much joy.

Pet #2  Some fish to entertain miss h when she was a very little one-including one of those pictured above.  This was the beginning of our downward spiral with the pets.  I have plecostumus guilt.

Pets #3 & #4  Two outside cats.  One grey tabby and one black and white.  Black and white quickly died in neighbor's field- I carried it's stiff dead body home, in a bag.

Pet #5 Aloof long hair black cat to join  #3, the very friendly grey tabby (named Fishy), who liked to help the girls wash the glass on the porch doors.

These two lived with us the longest.  We went through a lot with them.  One had an incident with a racoon and a pinned leg.  Other had an incident on the top of a very tall barn where we found out how much my mr. really loved us and how he felt about cats, but that is a wonderful story in and of itself.

These cats deserted us.  They left us to live with the sweet old cat lady who lived behind us and owned the barn. And then we moved. 

Pet #6 A hampster named Kitty. We were his second family. A very kind family adopted him when we moved from the great state of Texas. He was still alive a few months ago.  He's been around a while. Susie?

Pet #7 The dog.        I wonder when we'll move again.

(Pets # 1,2, & 6 have been our only ones allowed in the house.)

To state the obvious:  we have been very noncommittal regarding pets & we have never had a dog-until now.