Everything Ron

She said it's a male, can we keep it?

Midnight, Morris & Me

Growing up we always had numerous pets. Whiskers was my brother’s dog and was around before I was. He was a sweet old dog with a bad case of mange on his back. He had also been backed over by a car which broke his leg and they had to put pins in his leg. The accident didn’t hold him back at all, he still ran down the road running alongside me on my bike but he kinda ran sideways like the old Chevy Novas did with their rear ends looking like they were going to pass up the front. If you said get the bunny he’d fly up over the hill to look for one!

We also had a cat named Tiger, and boy was he was mean. Of course that had nothing to do with the fact that Rich and I would wrap him up in a blanket take him outside and throw the blanket high into the air although he always managed to land on his feet. Unfortunately it made him very mean! I remember one time he hid behind the couch and as one of the girls from the neighborhood walked by he attacked her, grabbing her leg with all of his craws and biting her at the same time. We eventually sent him to live on a farm.

Midnight meeting me at the wall

Whiskers was my brother’s dog so my parents let me get another cat. Morris was his name. We later found out he was a she. Morris gave birth to a litter of kittens and my mom let me keep two of them. Two beautiful long haired cats which I called Fluffy and Midnight. Fluffy had a bad habit of climbing on top of warm car tires and was accidentally run over by my mom’s Avon Lady so we had to have him put to sleep. Midnight lived to be 19 years old and was my buddy. He knew the sound of my car as I would come home from work and he would be waiting for me at the front walk. This long haired, jet-black cat was the sweetest cat you would ever meet. He loved to have his belly rubbed and was a gentle as a lamb when inside. When he was outside he was the king of his domain. He would catch small prey and fend off dogs, and was caught on film fraternizing with the raccoons. He was an amazing cat. One time I took him to a cat show and he wasn’t very happy and actually had diarrhea all over my mom and himself, poor cat. Mom had to go home and get washed up and changed. Midnight, however, did win Blackest Cat! (and the stinkiest.) Needless to say that was our last cat show. We found out later that many people sedate their pets for shows.

We also had bunnies, LOTS of bunnies. My brother and I came home with a (male) bunny (or so the woman told us) from the petting zoo at ACORD Park and after all was said and done this male bunny ended up being a pregnant female. Then they started multiplying. Dad spent most of his spare time building cages to try to keep them separated. Our shed was a bunny heaven. When we finally decided to stop the bunny-palooza we had well over 30 bunnies throughout the year. Our gardens grew wonderful that year thanks to the huge amounts of natural fertilizer.

Whiskers was still going strong and would often round up the bunnies in the yard kinda like a sheep dog with sheep. Unfortunately he disappeared one Fourth of July. We think he was afraid of the fireworks everywhere. Rich and Donna eventually went and picked up a mixed breed dog from the pound and called her Knucklehead, Knuckles for short.

Knuckles

Knuckles, although a Heinz 57 and a dubious name she was very smart and very talented at catching Frisbee. The one day she was catching Frisbee she went out in the yard several times and brought the Frisbee back, the third time she ran after the Frisbee but this time kept going straight, forgot about the Frisbee and instead ran several houses over and grabbed a nasty little poodle dog by the throat and shook it with all her might. We couldn’t help but laugh. It was a nasty little dog who used to chase us on our bikes and cars as they went by. It survived and Knuckles continued to keep a close eye on it every time we played Frisbee.

Grizzly Bear

Knuckles had a litter of puppies and what a great mom she was, and very protective of her pups. My brother walked into the basement with a towel over his head and Knuckles went after him protecting her puppies. Rich didn’t get hurt, but the water meter reader wasn’t so lucky as he pulled back a bloody hand. It wasn't as bad as it sounded and he never said a word realizing he has walked into our basement without warning. We kept one of the puppies which looked like a fuzzy bear. I named him Grizzly Bear. He wasn’t very smart, and hated to go for a walk (it was more like a drag) but I loved that dog and his very sweet disposition. Grizzly would howl at planes flying overhead and fire whistles. He also went missing like Whiskers but complete with his chain and all. We think the next-door neighbor who didn’t like his howling took him and got rid of him. Knuckles was with us for several more years until mom unfortunately found her hanging from her dog house. She loved to perch herself on top of the house and her chain got caught on a nail that was sticking out. I felt so bad for my mom who had to get her down and take care of her lifeless body. That was the end of pets for us until my brother and I had families of our own.

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