PETS

The first pet in Jenny’s life was Trixie, a yellow shepherd-collie mix. Mother and Daddy had gotten him before there were any children and had loved and trained him well. He didn’t try to knock Jenny over as some dogs did. Jenny liked to hear them tell about how Trixie would guard a nest of baby rabbits all day and chase away predators, and she felt that Trixie would guard and protect her too. Trixie would cock his head, looking very intelligent, when spoken to, and seemed to understand what was being said.

Trixie was joined by another dog, a brown short haired dog sprinkled with black that Mother named Pepper. They found him as an abandoned puppy, caught in the barbed wire fence across the road and whining pitifully. He had been caught by his private member, which was badly torn and hung down in an embarrassing manner for the rest of his life. They took him in, and though they didn’t need another dog, he wagged his tail and appeared so grateful that they didn’t have the heart to turn him away. Margaret made up a naughty tongue-twister about him that went, “Poor Pepper’s pecker pained pitifully.” Mother and Daddy laughed hard the first time she said it, but told her not to say it any more. Trixie and Pepper became good pals. Most farm dogs at that time were given table scraps. Sometimes Mother made extra milk gravy for the dogs and cats. They ate just about anything they were fed or could find and would catch and eat wild game whenever they could. Sometimes, when the family was gone, the dogs would sneak out to the hen house and suck eggs from the hen’s nests. When they did this, they would not greet the family joyfully as usual, but would hang their heads and keep their tails between their legs, anticipating the scolding they were going to get. Daddy kept a box of cotton seed meal in the garage to add to the cattle feed, and sometimes he would lift off the wooden lid and let the dogs dive in. They would emerge with yellow mouths and faces and a satisfied look. Daddy said it was very good for them and they seemed to thrive. Farmers didn’t often call a vet for a sick dog or cat. The vet was called only for a valuable horse or cow. In Jenny’s house, the dogs and cats weren’t allowed indoors. In winter they would huddle together for warmth on the south porch and they grew up peaceably together.

Aunt Alice’s husband Bob ran a drugstore in town, and when times were good, they lived well.
They had an aristocratic Persian cat that had given birth to a litter of beautiful long haired gray and white kittens with black markings on their faces that made them look very appealing. She wanted to give a kitten to Margaret and Jenny, and this is how they acquired Fuzzy. Each kitten had a notch cut in its left ear for identification. Jenny was about three and would chase Fuzzy around the house until she cornered and captured her. Fuzzy had been allowed to become a part time house cat. Jenny didn’t yet know how to be gentle with a pet and would squeeze her too hard or grab her by the tail or by one leg. Fuzzy would scratch in defense and Jenny went around much of that winter with her arms. hands and face decorated by scratches. Much to Mother’s dismay, Fuzzy had been trained to a litter box. Mother said this might be all right for town cats, but in the country, cats would just have to do this outdoors. Fuzzy would be let out at nights and periodically during the day. In the early spring, Fuzzy disappeared. Though they called and called, she was nowhere to be found. Two or three weeks
later, on Saturday afternoon. while talking to a group of men that gathered at the hardware store, Daddy happened to hear a neighbor, who lived about 4 miles away, mention that his wife had been feeding a pretty long haired kitten that had shown up at their doorstep. Daddy told him about Fuzzy and George Valentine said we should come over to see if this was our cat. The next day, the family drove to the Valentine farm and Flo called “Kitty, kitty kitty,” for a long time and finally this half-grown cat appeared. It was bigger than Fuzzy, and at first they thought it couldn’t be her, but there was the notch in her left ear. She had grown much in a few weeks. They happily took her home and gave her extra special care after that. When Jenny was 5, Fuzzy gave birth to a litter of six. They had hoped for more long hairs, but alas! not one resembled Fuzzy. They were all gray short hairs and looked like scrawny rats. Jenny would watch them fighting for position at their mother’s teats. It wasn’t long before the “Old Tom Cat,” got all of them but one male kitten. He soon grew fat from having all his mother’s milk to himself and they named him Tubby. Tubby refused to eat or drink from a dish until well along in cathood. He grew to be a lazy, surly demanding cat and continued to nurse from his mother until he was bigger than she was. She would growl and swat at him and scramble away.

Numerous other animals around the farm became pets. Jenny found a full grown plump white hen beneath the cedar trees that didn’t try to run away from her. She picked her up and saw that she had stumps instead of feet and could only hobble around slowly. She took her to to the house and Mother said, “Poor thing. She must have frozen her feet off last winter when it was so cold. I thought we got all the chickens penned up, but we must have missed this one.” She became Jenny’s pet hen and enjoyed being picked up and petted and would sing a “happy hen” song when Jenny stroked her head and back feathers. Jenny called her Cackie. Mother and Daddy didn’t tell Jenny when Cackie was accidentally run over by the tractor, because she was unable to get out of the way in time and Daddy couldn’t see her.

Margaret had a pet barred rock rooster that she named Oswald. She felt sorry for him, because as a chick, he was afflicted with a condition that caused him to flop over on his side and go around in circles. He continued to have the “falling sickness” all his life. Instead of a fine crop of tail feathers, he had only reddened skin on his behind which was rubbed nearly raw from going in circles on the ground. He looked very strange as he ran about the chicken yard, and people laughed when they saw him, but poor Oswald had a hard life.

Margaret had a pet cow named Betsy that she could ride. There was a Shetland pony named “Sunshine,” that was mistakenly fed too much by Margaret and the hired man and foundered so that her hooves became deformed and she couldn’t be ridden. There were numerous generations of cats. There were rabbits and birds that always died. The hired man found a den of coyotes and brought home a coyote pup. Coyote never took well to captivity and nearly chewed his foot off, trying desperately, perhaps, to free himself. One day, he wound himself around his chain and strangled.

Trixie became very ill when he was about 17 and would vomit and moan in agony. He was in so much misery that Daddy had to shoot him. It broke Mother and Daddy’s hearts, but Jenny was still too young to fully comprehend about the death of a pet. Margaret, being four years older, cried and cried. Pepper was shot by an angry neighbor.

When Jenny was 12, Dad brought home a dear little collie puppy which he had bought at the sale barn one Saturday. Jenny called her Lassie and spent many happy hours romping outdoors with her. Lassie grew into a handsome much loved dog.

Observing pets and life on the farm taught Margaret and Jenny much about the habits of different animals, and about caring for helpless creatures. Life was more valuable when you realized how uncertain it was for all living things.