My First 56 Years

He was a young dog not more than a year old but fully grown. He was afraid of storms and would whine and bark until we'd get up and let him inside. We’d put him in the mud room at the entrance to the hall below the stairs. Very well behaved, he never soiled the house. Although we never tried to house break him. He was an outside dog, someone had trained him well. When the pigs got out again all I had to say was, “Bring ‘em in King!' I'd wave my arms wide and he knew immediately what I meant. As soon as they would see King they would come out of the high weeds and come to investigate. Pigs are very curious animals and were not afraid of anything. King would bark and they would come to see and he'd lead them to the pig pen. His tail would wag and his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth like he was saying," What else do you want me to do?” Herding pigs was much easier when King was around!
Now that we had a place with pasture I, of course, wanted another horse just like Terre. I knew Terre was special and it would be hard to find another horse like her. Nicole was grown now, the puppy that Charles had bought for Christmas in 1977.She had had a litter of puppies and we gave one to Mary Anne. She named it Pierre. When the puppies were being born I could see that she was having a hard time so I boxed up Nicole and took her to the veterinarian in Troy. I had called him first because it was late at night and he said he would meet me at the office. I drove as fast as I dared to the office and had to help him deliver the puppies by cesarean section. I had never helped deliver anything before but he assured me all I had to do was rub them down as soon as he handed them to me. I rubbed like mad, stimulating stimulated them, and soon I had about six little full blooded black poodles in the box along with an unconscious Nicole. We had taken her to the groomer's who also bred dogs and she was bred by a very small toy poodle. Nicole was a toy poodle too but not really small like he was. It took forever for her to wake up and the puppies wanted to nurse. I called the vet and he said to keep stroking her and encouraging her to wake up. Finally she did to my relief. Nicole was treated as one of my children. She was very possessive of me and our family as well as her box. Everyone that came to visit knew to stay away from that box. She was well trained and usually did what she was told, hardly leaving my side.
I found a palomino in the paper. The prices of horses had gone up considerably and you couldn't find a well trained horse like Terre was for 350.00 anymore, let alone one that had been in horse shows. Mr. Hodges said he had a palomino that he had gotten from an auction up north where the wild horses were gathered by the government. He said he was green broke but he had the same markings as Terre. He was a gelding, very thin. We thought we could fatten him up on grain and pasture grass but he was still thin.
After we had taken the hogs to market and had one butchered, safely tucked away in the freezer downstairs we bought another hog and made the mistake of petting her. She’d roll over and begged to have her tummy rubbed. Charles kept telling me not to make a pet out of that hog because she was going to have to go to market or butcher sooner or later. She didn't act like the other hogs. She acted more like a dog.
The more I thought about that horse the more I wanted him. I don't remember how much Mr. Hodges wanted for that horse I just remember that it was 25.00 more than we had. I had called a dog breeder in South St Joseph that the first breeder had said wanted Nicole. I didn't think I could do it, but I thought I would just go down and talk to her anyway. Her name was Mrs. Henderson. I brought Nicole in and she wanted her and said she would give me the 25.00 I needed for the horse. I didn't want to give up my dog. A dog I had treated like my child for 3 years. I didn't see any other way if I wanted to buy that horse so we put her in the fenced in yard to go to the bathroom and when we left she barked and followed us as far as she could along the fence as we drove away out of the drive. I started to change my mind, she couldn't believe we were leaving her. I couldn't believe it either.
I gave Mr. Hodges the money for the horse I would later call Golden Boy. Golden Boy turned out to be more trouble than he was worth. Every time I would get to a certain area in the pasture he would buck me off. I’d get back on and do it again and he would do the same thing every time .His back bone was so thin that it hurt him every time I rode him bareback. I had sold all the tack when I sold the horses and hadn't bought a saddle. Ace Williams had died and we didn't know anyone else that used tack. We finally found someone in the paper that had a used saddle, so we bought that. All the feed and hay and supplements didn't seem to help him gain weight and all the horse wanted to do was stand by the fence and stare at that pig! He stay all day and wouldn't move from the fence. The pig too seemed to like his company and they touched noses and seemed to be talking to each other. I finally figure out that the horse needed wormed and he seemed to gain weight but never as much as I thought he should to be normal. I don't know how long he had gone being infested before we got him, We didn't have him too long and we sold him too. I was never that attached to him and cursed myself to this day for selling my dog for that horse. Later we found out who had her about five years later and dropped by for a visit. She still remembered me after all that time and whined and cried and I cried and held her. The lady wanted 100.00 for her and we didn't have the money. It hurt even more the second time I had to go out that door without her one more time. The lady said she could tell that she was my dog, but she wouldn't just give her back to us. I’m sure she bred her over and over and made plenty of money with the sale of her puppies.
Chucky was a year old and started to walk around and around from the living room through the dining room into the kitchen and the hall and back to the living room again. It seems he was afraid to stop because he knew if he didn't keep going he would fall down. We took plenty of pictures. Jenny and I would give him a bath in a plastic bathtub on the kitchen table and he would splash all the water out onto the floor. Jenny thought he was so funny and cute. His hair was blond and curly and Charles wouldn't let me cut his hair, Everyone thought he was a girl when we went to town and I got tired of telling them "He's a boy!"