Donald's Dog Stories

(From Donald, who remembers the farm animals much better than I do!)

Farm Dogs;

Growing up on working farm there was always a dog or two around. Daddy did not like cats but liked dogs.

Before my time Granddad (Waddie) had a dog named G-Man. G-Man was a bird dog and loved to quail hunt. Daddy was not the hunter or a crack shot like Granddad was but Daddy did take G-Man hunting a few times. When you shot G-Man would run and bring back the quail, if you missed he would come back sit down at your feet, look up at you as to say “can't you do any better than that?” If you missed a few times in a row don't bother looking for G-Man, he went home and would be at the dog pen waiting for you to feed and water him.

Daddy and Mother had a dog named Rover when George was born and he became George's buddy. One day when George was a couple of years old Mother could not find him. She quickly called Daddy and they looked all around the house, tractor shed and yard but no George. Daddy said he was going crazy when they found Rover and George over the hill south of the house playing in the sand.

Daddy and Mother had a step-side pickup and one of the dogs would jump up on the step side on the driver's side to ride. Every week Daddy or Mother (or both) would go to town (Ocala) and the dog would go with them. One day they got ready to come home and no dog. They looked all around the square but no dog. They told the guard at the bank about the dog and come on home. The next week when they got to town the dog came out from a bush carrying a puppy in her mouth. The dog had a litter of pups under a bush on the square. They loaded up the puppies and the new mom in the back of the truck and brought them home.

Donald and a dog

Mother and Harold and a dog

The dogs I remember most were Spot and Dot.  They were both girl Terrier's that seemed to always have puppies. Every time you went out the door the dogs would go with you to the shop or a long walk. They would follow the tractor around the fields till they got too tired. If they found a rabbit off they would go but most of the time the critters had longer legs than they did. If a snake was to be found, one would grab its tail and the other its head and good-bye snake. You could say "sick-em" and they would jump on anything there was around.  If there was nothing there, they would fight each other. A 5 gal bucket of water would always stop the fight and they would be the best of friends again. Daddy would fuss if I got the dogs fighting too much.

There was Brownie he loved to chase cars till he caught one, the car hurt his back and he could not walk for a month or so. But Brownie learned to brace his body over his front legs and could walk on two legs for a short ways. Then one day he got hit again and one of his canine teeth was hanging loose. Daddy got a pair of pliers and call the dog over, Brownie would put his head on Daddy's leg till he felt the cold metal. After a few try's Daddy got the tooth out. Later Brownie bit one of the neighbors (Phillip Hooker). Phillips' dad did not believe him about getting dog bit as there was only one puncture mark.

Don't remember what dog it was but one of them would always run to the back corner of the shop every time it rained and if it was lighting he would put his nose in the corner and howl. After the rain he always had a sheepish look on his face.

There was a Husky one time and I had a Bloodhound for a week or so till the Lowell Prison came and got him.

We had many dogs but never remember buying any dog food.  The dogs ate what we did.  They survived and did well on left over people food.

After Lilli and I were married we had a German Shepard that would jump up on top of our car and ride. Then we had two Bulldogs that were big puppies, but the male dog would not let us correct Denver. If we raised our voice or grabbed Denver the Bulldog would grab our leg and look up at us as if to say, "that is my boy".