Cookie

The writer's club my Mom belongs to, now has their own blog. I will add it to my links if I can figure out how. We still don't have my e-mail fixed yet. We have had an on line chat with tech support but we're still doing something wrong.

The following is another installment about the dogs my Mom has owned.

Some years after Fiji a cat, Smokey” joined the family. He just appeared as cats do and stayed for several years before leaving as suddenly as he came. I would like to think he had joined another family but I was old enough now to know there could be an alternative ending of his life.

By now I was in my teens and more interested in boys than dogs or cats.

When I married and moved to my own rented home, I wanted a dog. We went to an animal pound and picked up a mostly Shepard puppy. This was my first experience with the responsibility of owning a pet.

I didn’t realize until then that Puppies can make lots of puddles. It was a challenge to housebreak her. She also wanted to eat everything we ate. Usually we gave in and gave her lots of table scraps.

“Cookie” was only 6-8 weeks old when we got her. We were living year round in a summer cottage. Rents were hard to find and/or afford. We made a deal with the owner of the cottage for $10.00 a week. We had been living with my In-Laws for about 10 months when I found out I was pregnant. I wanted my own place no matter how small or how few amenities it had.

We had no running water but we had a hand pump in the kitchen. We had to keep a jug of water on hand at all times because this pump would loose its prime resulting in no water. The place was not insulated and the only thing that kept us from freezing to death that first winter was a big old wood stove in the kitchen. That was also the cooking stove. It was impossible to control the heat so I either undercooked or overcooked a lot of my first meals. I knew how to cook. I had been cooking at my grandmothers for several years but on a gas range, heaven compared to this.

The cottage was located on a peninsular of a good sized lake. We were the last house where someone lived year round. The plow in the winter ended their snow clearing just passed our car. Being a dirt road added to some interesting moments when the spring thaw came. I was no longer working and had only the dog to keep me company. No Phones out that far either.

“Cookie” loved the water and would walk out on the ice until she came to an opening where she promptly went swimming. She would come back with icicles dangling from her fur. Her bed was beside the stove so it didn’t take long before she “melted” and I could dry her off. She was a “fixed” female that I had been assured would not wander. Nobody told her so she became well known in the area. That is until the baby came.

After the baby came she hardly left my side. She was not jealous, just interested. She always wanted to sniff the baby so I would unwrap the baby’s feet and let the dog check her out. In the spring, Cookie did not wander off but stayed by the crib, carriage or playpen. She was absolutely in love with this baby.

When the baby began to crawl around a bit, Cookie was right there to make sure nothing happened to her. My daughter took her first steps with tiny fingers entwined in the dog's heavy coat of fur.

When the baby was first born my husband installed an electric pump so we had running water in the kitchen. We had a toilet that was flushed with a bucket of water kept in the bathroom for that purpose. No bath or shower.

My husband bought an old wringer washer and I heated water on the wood stove in every pot and pan I owned to do the washing. Clothes were hung outside to dry except in the winter when they were dried on a fold out clothes rack. Towels, sheets, diapers, and everything else we owned was stiff and scratchy unless ironed. I ironed everything in the attempt to make them softer.

My first child came with serious health problems so when I found out I was pregnant again, we decided we needed to move closer to the city. We knew “Cookie” would not survive there nor would she be welcome by any landlord. Apartments were still hard to find, especially with a child and another on the way. We found a home for “Cookie”. We missed her but knew she would be better off on a farm than in the city.

Todays quote is by the late Charles Schultz, creator of Snoopy.

"Happiness is a warm puppy."