Memories of My First Pets                                                                  

For as long as I can remember I’ve felt a special connection to the animals in my life. I feel fortunate that together we can share this connection, whether it’s your pets, mine, or the farm animals and wildlife around us. They all connect us to each other and to life in general.  I wanted to share with you some memories of my earliest pets, which gave me companionship and helped me make my first connections to the animal world.

The first cat that I can remember was a large orange tom cat named Yo-yo. I’m not sure where he came from and how he became my pet, I was between 2-4 years old when he came into my life. I was the one who named him, not sure why Yo-yo except that yo-yos were popular toys when I was growing up. I also had a doll named “door knob” so my choice of names could be strange at times.

I remember Yo-yo as a gentle giant who let me carry him all over, dress in doll clothes and take for rides in a doll stroller. I can remember carrying him, draped over my arm like a rag doll, he obviously put up with a lot.

I don’t remember Yo-yo moving with us to Tioga Center so he must’ve been gone by the time I was about 6 years old. The cat I remember best from my years in Tioga Center was Huckleberry and I know he came from a litter that was born in a neighbor’s barn. In looking through old picture there were many litters of kittens that were born between our house and the neighbors, people didn’t spay or neuter their animals as much then as they do now.

 Huckleberry was a male tiger cat and I had him for many years. He was gentle also, but a fighter and would go out and get in fights with other cats and come home with injuries. From one of his fights he developed a large abscess on his neck. Begrudgingly my father took him to the vet to be treated. My father grumbled about spending money on a cat but he did heal from the abscess.  I remember that he lost an eye in another fight. By the end he wasn’t pretty to look at but he was mine and slept in my bedroom, unless he was out on the prowl.

Another pet that I had when I was really young was a white duck named Seymour; he came as an Easter gift. When I was a child you could buy just one duckling or chick from a department store.  They were often colored a pastel color with food dye. Of course now you can’t order less than 6 chicks at a time and they aren’t artificial colored.

I remember spending a lot of time in the basement of Newberry’s Department store were my mother shopped. They had a pet department and sold fish, birds and other small animals. Sometimes they had small painted turtles that were actually painted on their shells with pictures of things like palm trees. I convinced my mother once in letting me buy one with a quarter that I had but I don’t think the turtle lived for very long once I got him home.

Seymour became my best buddy and side kick. I use to collect earth worms for him, keeping them in the pockets of my pants.  At that time there were workers that were repairing an old porch on our house. They thought it was funny that I had a duck for a pet but would save worms that they found while working. He would follow me around and peck at my pants, sometimes even pulling the pants down when he tried to get to the worms. I also had a tea set and put worms in a tea cup for him so we could have tea parties together. We must’ve been a strange sight.

Seymour had a favorite puddle at the end of our drive way that he liked to swim in, we didn’t have any ponds or other bodies of water near the house. We live on a busy 2 lane road, before any 4 lane road had been built in the area. The road was the main route for anyone to get from one end of the county to the other.

One day, as Seymour was having his swim, a truck hit him. I didn’t see the accident, but my mother did and was very upset. I remember her saying that she thought the driver had done it on purpose, the puddle was well off the road and he would’ve had to swerve to hit the duck. I know I missed my tea party buddy.

The first dog I remember having was named Tramp and the name fit him. My father was an auto parts salesman and would travel among various garages. In his travels he came across a stray dog that was looking for a home. One evening after work he loaded us into the back of our station wagon, before car seats or seat belts were necessary, and we all went to capture the dog. My father brought some raw hamburger with us to lure the dog into the car. I can’t imagine going with young children to lure a stray dog with raw meat into a car. He must’ve met the dog previously and been pretty sure that the dog was friendly.

Tramp was a large hound Dalmatian mix and I was in love at once. Someone gave us a dog house for him that had real windows with glass in them. The house was large enough that I could fit comfortably in it with Tramp and I spent a lot of time in that dog house. I don’t remember Tramp ever coming into our house, maybe he was never housebroken, but he shared his house with me.

I didn’t have other children to play with except for your Uncle Mike who was one year older. I don’t remember that we played much together though I’m sure we did at time. Mike has always been interested in tools, tearing things apart and building things, like some other boys that I know now. I was into my imagination and playing outside with what I found.  The animals that I had as pets joined me and gave me companionship in my play.

I don’t think Tramp moved with us to Tioga Center. By then I wasn’t fitting as well in the dog house. I could get in but had a hard time turning around and couldn’t sit up in it. Also once we moved to Tioga Center we had neighbors with children who I could play with.  My days of having only a dog or a duck as a play mate were over. I don’t remember how Tramp died or when, I hope he knew how much he meant to a little girl without any human friends.

The next dog we had as a family was a cocker spaniel mix that my father brought home one night. Her name was Brown Sugar but we called her Sugar. At first my mother insisted that my father take her back, she didn’t want a puppy, but my father hid the puppy in the bathroom and Sugar eventually grew on my mother. Sugar was a house dog but also spent some of her time at Tramp’s old dog house in the back yard. Sugar became more of my mother’s dog, I loved her and spent time with her but didn’t have the connection to her that I had with Tramp. I was a pre teen by that time and busy with friends that I made after we had moved.

My last personal pet that I had before going to live on my own was a tortoise shell cat that I named Casey Jones, after a Grateful Dead song. I still had her when I went away to college and took her with me after I moved out of the dorms into an apartment. She would ride on my shoulder while I drove a car, meowing as I drove, and would ride in the basket of my bike too. We rode a lot of miles together.

I struggled with finding a place to fit in at collage. I had roommates that I was friendly with but never really close to. I had my own bedroom in the house that we rented together and I usually spent my time there or walking or riding around the college town. Casey was usually with me unless I was going to class. I remember taking Casey with me to shop in a local bookstore where I often went. She was very good and would lie across my neck, not jumping down.

Animals have always been there for me when I needed a friend and companion growing up. I think often we gain and get so much more from the animals in our lives than what we give back to them, I know I have. They connect us to the natural world, a world as humans that we sometimes take for granted. I’m glad that the three of you are able to grow up around a variety of animals and can learn the lessons of life animals can teach to all of us. We just have to be willing to learn.

written 1/30/18

 

                                                This is a picture of my dog Sugar

and this is Huckleberry