YES, I AM STILL HERE peeking out my window on Main Street, and for some reason I’m thinking about Man’s Best Friend this week.
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ANIMAL CRACKERS. Every now and then, life gives us an awful and brutal reminder.
I saw in the news recently that a baby girl, dropped off at grandparent’s place, was placed in a ‘bouncy’ chair. Grandparents turned their backs, and their beloved pet pit bull killed the little girl.
Pit bull fans say that the people who raise the dog determine whether the dog is vicious or not. That may or may not be true — depending if you want to risk your grandchild’s life.
An outfit called dogsbite.org says that two thirds of all fatal dog attacks are by pit bulls. They also say that children ages 9 and younger make up more than 3/4 of the victims.
For some reason, and at some point, a pit bull breed dog reverts to some inbred killing instinct. It doesn’t need a reason to attack. I swear, three or four times a year I come across a similar article where a pit bull has killed either an old person or a helpless child.
Our city council in Nashville wisely banned pit bull breeds some years ago, but every now and then some bright citizen wants to challenge that ban.
As long as I live and breathe I will oppose elimination of that ban.
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MORE ABOUT DOGS. Just writing this has made me think about friendlier pooches.
He came with us when we first moved to Nashville in the summer of 1950. He was an adult mixed mixed mixed breed dog that belonged to Uncle Jack who gave us the dog because he was shipping out with the Navy. The dog was named Bivens, for the Texarkana area community where he was born.
We — my siblings and I — couldn’t say Bivens. We called him Bibby. Classic mutt — small, short legs and coal black.
Bibby lived in the fenced back yard on College Street and that is where me and my brothers learned our first lesson about dogs — watch where you step, especially if you’re barefoot.
The gate at the side of the house had a large decorative loop at the top. Bibby — being a superb athlete and smart, was pretty quick to learn that with a running start he could leap up and through that loop. After that he was free to roam the neighborhood. In fact, there are probably still some dogs in the old neighborhood that carry Bibby’s genes.
I do not remember what happened to Bibby. His disappearance may have had something to do with us uprooting to California for a year while my father was doing Marine Corps Reserve duty during the Korean War.
When we returned to Nashville I was a third-grader, and our dog was Dusty, a collie with extrasensory perception. In the summer when he shed his winter coat, great gobs of hair swung heavily from his undercarriage. I swear, every time we tried to sneak up on him to give him a summertime buzz cut, he knew it. He had a way to get under the house, and he’d stay there in the cool until we forgot about the haircut.
I saw an article about the domestication of dogs which was thought to have happened about 16,000 years ago in China. All dog species are thought to have descended from the gray wolf. Great pony-sized mastiffs, teacup tiny little yap dogs and even Bibby and Dusty — all from the gray wolf.
The way scientists have been able to tell dog bones from wolf bones in the floor of ancient caves is that one animal is still clutching a caveman’s leather pennyloafer in its jaws. Ha ha.
There is no animal on earth that loves and serves man as much as the dog.
After Bibby and Dusty there was a procession at our house of dogs of all breeds, sizes and levels of intelligence.
I guess our favorite of all time was Smokey, a male German shepherd, who was Swampy’s constant companion. Smokey roamed the three blocks between our house and the newspaper office freely, and that led to his death.
He was poisoned by a woman who hated dogs and kids. We didn’t have a veterinarian in town in those days, and Swampy had to rush him to Hope. He died on the way.
…… We do love our dogs, don’t we?
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MORE THINGS I LEARNED from the Extension Service summer newsletter: July is the best time to plant Bok Choi and Pak Choi.
Please put them in different rows so that you don’t get them confused (this suggestion is my own).
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WORD GAMES. I love oxymorons:
Some are Seriously Funny.
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HE SAID: “It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.” Aeschylus, Greek playwright
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SHE SAID: “It’s your outlook on life that counts. If you take yourself lightly and don’t take yourself too seriously, pretty soon you can find the humor in our everyday lives. And sometimes it can be a lifesaver.” Betty White, American actress, comedian, and animal advocate
(I included the animal advocate description in memory and in honor of Bibby, Dusty and Smokey)
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SWEET DREAMS, Baby
