... rear end and back legs lifted high in the air ...

Brownie was a brown dog.  Spot and Dot were spotted dogs.  Mutt was, well, a mutt.  Some of our dogs names were very basic and descriptive. Even Mother's Daddy, Pop, had a black dog named Blackie.

Dogs were always a part of life on the farm.  Although Mother and Daddy didn't have dogs or cats the last years of their lives, as long as we were farming, they had dogs and cats.  

Dogs and cats were farm animals.  Although we knew a veterinarian, our dogs and cats weren't ever treated by one that I remember.  Mother and Daddy had enough expense paying for medical expenses for all of us young'uns.  

Back in those days, an animal like a farm dog or farm cat would die if it had a major medical problem.  Daddy didn't like animals to suffer so he would make sure the death was as quick and as painless as possible once it was clear that the animal wouldn't recover to live a good life.  

Jean, Daddy, Edith, Judy (behind hands)

Dog - maybe Brownie

From accidents like being hit by a car, truck, bus, or tractor to snake bites, animals didn't always live a long time in the country.  Brownie was one of the dogs that was bitten by a snake.  But unlike some snake-bitten dogs, Brownie lived a good life afterward. 

One of the oddest sights I remember (and I was so young that I barely remember it) was of Brownie after he was hit by a car.   For some time afterward, he walked on two legs - his FRONT two legs!  I remember watching Brownie, his rear end and back legs lifted high in the air, walking on the grass by the sidewalk in this photo.  He was the first dog I've ever seen walking around with his rear up high in the air.

It was some time before he walked normal again but he did recover!