pets and more pets

When discussing pets with a friend recently, I commented that although we don't have a pet now, in our past we have had many pets. Well, I should say that I had many pets. When I was a little girl, we had dogs and cats. The first dog that I remembered was called Mitzi. She was a mutt. I don't know how we got her, but it seemed to me we had her till I was in the second or third grade. After Mitzi went to dog heaven, we had dogs that were Cocker Spaniels. Well, actually, only one was a pure bred Cocker, but the other was a mixed bred that looked like a Cocker. Both of these two dogs were black and it seems as if I've mixed up their personalities, combining them into one dog.
These two dogs lived a long time. The mix was still with us when Al and I were dating. Mickie would meet him at his car when he came to call, barking a lot. He'd greet him and walk him to his car when he left. Al swears that he was the only one the dog ever barked at, but as I recall, Cockers are barkers and I'm sure he barked at everyone. This was before leash laws and all the dogs in the neighborhood ran free. Mickie was no exception. We could go to the door and call him and we'd spot him at least a mile away in New Derry (across the fields). This little black spot would hear us and pretty soon we'd see that spot getting bigger and bigger as he crossed over the fields and over the creek and up the hill to our back yard. I don't recall how either one of these dogs met their fate.
Our family dog was named "John Wayne Steinmetz" nicknamed Duke..How original was that. We got him when Karen was about five. Duke's mother was a Cockapoo..a mutt herself...but named Valentine. Valentine loved the big dog down the street and every time she was in heat, she'd go visit him and come back pregnant. She had about three litters before her owners figured out how she was getting pregnant and decided to get her neutered. Duke was the runt of one of her litters and he was a sweet dog. We never trained him very well, Both Duke and the family could have stood some training. Duke died when Karen was in high school and we were all sad. As I was the one who bought the dog food, I was reminded of Duke every time I was in the grocery store. I couldn't go down the pet food aisle for several years after Duke was gone.
Now I could write a book about the cats we had...many, many cats. We lived near open fields and little mice would often make their way into the house. Cats of many colors and stripes were part of my growning up years. When I was an adult, but not married yet, we had a scruffy tom cat who would prowl the neighborhood and come in beat up from his encounters with other cats. That cat was just called Cat, but after one too many times in the ring, my dad renamed him Casius Clay, later called Ali, because of his fighting abilities.
I'll have to save the stories about cats in our married years for another time, as it appears it is time for lunch...the stomach is growling....If interested, just ask.
I'd have a cat in a minute, but the man I live with says, "No, thanks." You can't win them all, can you? Till next time.