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Darke
County Senior Scribes
Dogs I have known
By Delbert Blickenstaff
Rosie is a two pound Chihuahua who comes to church almost every Sunday
in the arms of her owners. Occasionally she wears a new
sweater. I don’t know what she thinks of the sermons, but she
seems to appreciate the music. Rosie’s owners have also brought
their big black Poodle. This dog is trained to respond to hand
signals instead of vocal commands, and she gets to visit nursing
homes to show off her skills.
Duchess was a Kerry Blue Terrier given to us by my brother. She
was used to living inside so Louise tolerated the arrangement.
However the favorite place for Duchess to lie was in the middle of the
kitchen floor, and Louise got tired of stumbling over her. When
we realized that she was very protective of the family and hated men
who wore hats, like the mailman, we decided to give her back to my
brother.
A friend at the hospital decided that, Checkers, a black lab, needed a
farm to run on and so she gave him to us. He was nothing but
trouble. He ate Louise’s tomatoes off the vine, the tossed he
kittens up in the air just for fun, he ran the horses over the fence,
and he slept in Louise’s flower beds. So we had no trouble giving
him away.
Rusty was a beautiful Irish Setter, but he was the wildest dog I have
ever seen. During a thunder storm he would get out of his pen,
usually by climbing over the fence, and run to the neighbor’s barn to
hide, as if their barn was safer than ours. He was a people dog,
and wanted to see or hear us all the time. At night he would wake
up around 2:00 AM and start howling, until I opened an upstairs window
and yelled “Rusty, shut up.” He loved to run off and finally when
he ran 6 miles into Versailles the Warden call us. We said, “Keep
him.” Later we saw the Warden driving his truck with Rusty
sitting beside him on the front seat, smiling ear to ear.
Would you name a watch dog Virginia? My other brother had a big
Doberman female named Virginia. When my brother was too sick to
walk the dog I took his place. I weigh 150 lbs. and that 75 lb.
dog jerked me all over the sidewalk. She was well trained,
however, and would sit beside me whenever a car came by.
Probably our favorite dog was Pepe, a long haired miniature
Dachsund. Louise tolerated him in the house because he didn’t
cause any trouble. He didn’t chew anything, and he didn’t
shed. He spent a lot of time sleeping under the couch. At
dinner time he would sit up on his hind quarters and beg for scraps of
food. One time he was out in the back yard when he came to me for
help. He had got a small bone stuck between his upper teeth and
he needed help getting it out. I wedged a stick in his mouth so
he wouldn’t bite me and got the bone out. He almost said “Thank
you.”
Delbert Blickenstaff, M.D.
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