Flashback Friday

Well, today I am really thinking about my Angel, so for Flashback Friday, I think back about my past pets.

Back when we lived on the small farm, I had a Sheltie named Dixie. I don't remember getting Dixie, I don't remember naming Dixie. I think she came with the name. She was kinda old. I was only 8ish at this time, so my memories may be a bit distorted. Poor Dixie. My parents don't share my love of ALL animals, so Dixie was chained to a dog box in the back yard. I remember I used to climb in the dog box with Dixie sometimes. My parents just LOVED that!!

Well, a couple times we would come home from somewhere, or wake up and Dixie would be gone. The chain having been broken. We never really know how, or where she would even go. She always came back, though. Eventually, Dixie got something wrong with one of her eyes, or maybe the area around it. I don't know what it was, but it seemed to me that something was eating at it, or maybe it was necrotic. I remember it was open and oozing around her eye. I remember Dad telling me that she was sick.

One day, we came home and found a hunting dog chewing on Dixie's chain. We thought maybe that was how she was getting loose. Apparently she was being sprung by this hunting dog, and going running around Ware Neck with him.

Now the bad part...

One day I came home from school, and went immediately to Dixie's box, as I always did, and I found a puppy in the box!!! The puppy was obviously just born, but the puppy was not Dixie's. I knew it couldn't be. Because if Dixie had a puppy, it would look like Dixie, right? It certainly wouldn't look like a hunting dog. OH. Wow. Now, of course I didn't think of this myself at this young age. I ran in the house to get Dad and told him some dog had a puppy and left it in Dixie's dog box. He came out and looked. He told me that the hunting dog had got Dixie pregnant and that Dixie had this puppy. He then proceeded to tell me that this puppy would not live, no matter what we did, and that Dixie would probably die, too. He told me to go in the house. I did. I had no idea yet what Dad could/would do, so I did go in the house.

I don't know what happened to Dixie or the puppy, but I probably have some idea, after finding out what he used to do with the baby rabbits that would not make it. I caught him way back in the woods throwing one out. I didn't talk to him for what seemed like months. I always wanted to bury them if they died. And if they were sick, I wanted to nurse them back to health. He just threw them out. I remember this very vividly, because I absolutely love ALL animals. Always have, always will.

So wherever Dixie and her baby ended up, I hope that they are at peace....