By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JULY 9, 2019 | Even before our family had children, we’ve had dogs. All lived to older lives.
We’ve also had a few temporary dogs, not always of our choosing.
When returning from our 3.5 years in Germany in the Army, we shipped home George, a purebred German wire-haired terrier. He was with us in Iowa and in South Georgia. He died when he was nine years old.
Neighboring friends gave us a young blond Cocker Spaniel. He didn’t work out. You see, this spaniel, Clifford, named by our children, was simply not very intelligent. A couple moving to Atlanta thought he was adorable, and he went with them.
We journeyed one day to Jacksonville, Fla. to look for a beagle. We met the dog and his mother, a beautiful small beagle, and our kids fell in love with him immediately. We never met the father. Our kids named him Clifford George for the two previous dogs, and he quickly understood “C.G.” We got him as a pup, thinking he was a 13-inch beagle. Then he started growing. When full grown, the only aspect of him that was 13 inches was his tail. And he weighed 50 pounds. Remember, we never met his father. Something about the tone of a four-cylinder engine vehicle bugged him. He would chase cars and trucks, going up to 35 mph.
C.G. stayed with us about 14 years. The afternoon he died, I was resting in the hammock after some yard work. C.G., by then slowed by a stroke, came around the corner of the house, and crawled up in the hammock with me. We may have been there a half hour or hour. Later that day, we found him dead across the street in a neighbor’s yard.
A veterinarian, knowing of our loss, next gave us Reilly, a brown feist of about 12 pounds. He was with us for 18 years.
Herky, on guard.
Then came our current dog, who is slowed now at about 15 years. He’s Hercules. We got him from the White County Dog Pound, and he and I bonded immediately. He weighs in at about 18 pounds. The back end looks like a Jack Russell, the front end is more undetermined. I still walk him about 6:30 each morning, but he walks ever so slowly now most of the time, then he’ll speed by me going home.
We had another dog temporarily, a big old dog with an enormous face that showed up at our house when we had George. Somehow he reminded us of Walter Cronkite, which we named him. We fed him outside, and he wouldn’t leave. We mentioned him in the newspaper. No one claimed him. After two weeks, our Pontiac dealer’s wife said she would take him, the same day a farmer came and said the same.
So he went to the Pontiac dealer’s house. Two weeks later, he reappeared at our place, some 4-5 miles and across a swamp from our house. We took him back to his new home. A few days later, Walter was back at our house, and the exasperated Pontiac dealer’s wife vowed that was it. “And I just fed him chicken last night.”
We called the farmer about Walter, and he said he would take him. The farm was a good 10 miles from us, and that’s the last we ever heard of Walter Cronkite, the dog.
Yep, we’re a dog family, enjoying them all, even Walter Cronkite for a few days.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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