Pets

I've had quite a few pets along the journey of life!

My first was a dog named Patty.  She lived in a small house in our back yard in New Brighton [this was common at that time].  I would let her loose and play with her in the backyard.  It was my responsibility to feed her and make sure she had water.

Suddenly, Patty was pregnant!  That was exciting!  She had a litter of about seven puppies.  They were born in our basement;  that was quite an education!  One of her pups intrigued us;  no one could tell us for sure if it was a boy or a girl.  You guessed it - it was a hermaphrodite;  the vet told us there were less than eight in the country at that time!

My Dad told me I could keep just one dog.  That was tough!  I had fallen in love with a brown puppie that I had named Brownie (really creative with names, huh?).  But when it came time to take Patty to the pound, I couldn't do it.  We kept Patty and gave all the puppies away.

I also raised hamsters and guinea pigs.  One hamster stood out among the rest.  His name was Chippy (no laughing - I was just a kid).  My folks had gotten new carpet in the living room.  I always laid on the floor to watch TV. After the new carpet, my Mom made me lay on a sheet so I wouldn't make a dirty spot on the carpet.  One afternoon (probably while watching "The Three Stooges") I wondered if I could teach Chippy to stay on that sheet? Thousands of times, I would pick him up and put him back on the sheet!  It took weeks, but finally he got it.  I could even leave the room and he would go right to the edge - but not off the sheet!  :-)

I carried Chippy around as a young-teen in my shirt pocket.  When I would stop and talk with someone it was fun to see their reaction to my pocket moving!  Then, suddenly, my beady-eyed friend would pop his head out of my pocket.  Ha ha ha ha ha...

He was great entertainment at Family Camp.  Me and Bobby Edenfield would sit on opposite ends of a pew and Chippy would run back and forth to get sunflower seeds!  I used to love giving him cheese curls!  He would stuff them into his cheek pouches until his head was bigger than his body!  :-)

When we lived in McClellandtown, we had a little black dog that we named Chapoo - supposedly, he was a cross between a Chihuahua and a Poodle?  He was a fun dog.

I also had a blood hound that I named Rock!  One night I took him hunting down in the woods across from our house.  I let him loose and heard him working circles around me in the darkness.  When the circles were big enough, I couldn't hear him anymore.  I sat with my 22 across my legs - trying to stay warm.  After an hour-and-a-half, I decided to go home.  I went to his box to throw my coat down so he'd stay when he came home.  That was when I noticed that he was in his box - sound asleep!

When we moved to East Liverpool, Ohio, my secretary, Shirley Sparks, gave me her Cocker Spaniel, Tiffany.  She loved to chase tennis balls in our back yard.  But the children were little and kept getting bit by fleas, so we gave her away!

Then, a few years later, I got a pound puppy for our kids.  He was a Collie-Husky mix and we named him Keeto.  He also lived in an insulated house in the backyard - except for cold winter days when he came into the house.  Poor Keeto!  We also had several rabbits in a hutch about six feet away from him! He was on constant ALERT by their hopping around!

Keeto was lively and fun and loved to run circles around the kids in our back yard.  He knew how to run past little Tracie and Troy and bump them with his rear-end just enough to knock them down.  They would get SO ANGRY with him - it was hilarious.  We loved Keeto; he was a great family friend.

When the kids got older, we lived in a house we called 'Maniac Mansion'. Travis was already driving at this time.  He and Troy decided to get me a dog for Christmas!  They found a puppy that was supposed to have some wolf in him along with Alaskan Malamute.  Their youth pastor, Raeanne Thompson, kept this rolly-polly pup for them.  One day, she actually brought it to church and I saw it,  I told her it was ugly!  :-)  I was quite surprised when it showed up at my house on Christmas morning!  I named him Pooch!

Pooch walked almost daily with me and became a good buddy.  He lived in our fenced in back yard that had a sidewalk along it.  This was in downtown East Liverpool.  There were people walking by at all hours of the day and night.  He loved to lay in wait and then leap at them barking and sounding ferocious!  He had become a big, strong dog by this time!

One hot summer night, he kept barking.  We were laying in an upstairs bed - unable to sleep because of the heat and humidity.  I would hear someone walking up the front of our house.  When they would turn, I knew what was going to happen.  Repeatedly, I got up in the window and hollered:  "Shut up, Pooch!"  After repeated vignettes, I heard footsteps again (it was 1:00 AM); then soon the barking.  I rolled over to get up and then heard a man's voice holler out:  "Shut up, Pooch!"  I never did figure out who it was, but you could hear laughing up-and-down our street.  Unfortunately, somebody eventually fed him some antifreeze.  Sad!

After moving to Spencerville, Maryland, we got a Chow mix from the pound and named him Cheer (he always seemed to be smiling).  The neighbor's dogs tormented Cheer and he refused to restrain his dogs.  One day, (knowing this history) Troy coaxed one of his dogs up to his bedroom window - and then shot it between the eyes with his BB gun!  That kept him away for a while!  :-)

When we moved to Akron, Ohio, we weren't allowed to have dogs because of the work we did:  we ran a licensed home for behaviorally challenged kids in Summit County.  But we did have some parakeets!  I loved to hear them singing.  We would let them fly around our bedroom - until one day someone left the sliding doors open.  From then on, I had to listen to them sing from a distance!

Then, we moved to New Middletown, Ohio.  Debbie Jordan hooked us up with a Border Collie during Family Camp one year!  He was a great hiking buddy. While backpacking on the North Country Trail, my first night out I camped on a power line clear-way.  After eating, it started to get dark.  Collar (he had a white collar around his neck) just stood and stared into the woods on either side of the clearway.  Eventually, I crawled into my tent and zipped it shut. Collar lay outside whimpering until I gave in and let him in.  He laid beside me trembling and growling.  It made me wonder what he was hearing that I wasn't?  So, I rolled over, put my good ear down and went to sleep!

And now, Debbie got Gabe!  He was born last October and came to live with us at six-weeks-old!  He's house-broken now and has earned the right to be in the living room from time-to-time.  He's full of life and can't leave Shadow (our cat) alone!  Poor Shadow!

That reminds me:  we've had lots of cats along the way, too:  Ditto, Buttons, Sweetie, Lucky, Pursis, Reeces, Inky, Morrison, Saucipater, Peaches and Shadow!

Pets are a good thing!  I'm excited to know that there'll be animals in Heaven!

CHIPPY

When I was a young boy, I had a pet hamster named Chippy.  Chippy was nocturnal.  I eventually learned to sleep to the never-ending squeek of his running wheel.

We were alike in one respect:  I always picked the almonds out of my Mom's bowl of mixed nuts;  Chippy always picked the sunflower seeds out of his tray of food!

Occasionally, I would put corn curls in his cage and watch him stuff them into his side-cheek-pouches.  By the time he got one in each side, he nearly doubled in size! 

Chippy loved to travel with me.  He went to church a few times and nearly always accompanied me at Family Camp.  He rode in my shirt pocket.  It was fun to watch people's responses when they would see my shirt start to move.  Then, when Chippy peeked out of my pocket, their eyes would nearly bug out! 

Chippy helped me get through many LONG evening services at Tri-State Camp.  I would sit on one end of the old, board 'pews' and Bobby Edinfield would sit at the other.  We would each have a supply of sunflower seeds.  Chippy would scoot back-and-forth across the bench shelling and eating.  When he was done, we'd simply sweep the seed-shells off into the straw on the dirt floor!   :-)

Chippy broke out one day and was MIA for over a week.  I found him again though, with my Mom's help.  Her warning scream brought me running when Chippy shot out across the kitchen floor! 

MY BEST FURRY FRIEND

I raised hamsters when I was a young teenager.  Did you know that you can train hamsters?

At the time, my folks had just bought new carpeting for our living room.  My mother was VERY fussy about keeping it in mint condition. 

When I watched television, I usually laid on the floor with a stack of couch pillows.  Once the new carpet arrived, I had to lay on a sheet - to protect the carpet for my greasy potato chip stains!

I often played with my hamster while watching TV.  I would let him craw all over me.  When he would bolt for freedom, I would grab him and set him back on my stomach. 

One day it hit me:  Can I train him to stay on this sheet?  That began a continually repetitive process of picking him up and putting him back on the sheet.  Over and over and over again!

But, eventually, he got it!  The light went on in his little brain.  I wore him down.  After months of training, I could actually get up and go to the kitchen for some more poatato chips.  When I returned, the beady-eyed little guy would be standing right at the edge of the sheet - awaiting my return! 

Now it's time for you to get involved.  What was the name of my hamster?  Answer by commenting below or on my Facebook page:  http://www.facebook.com/halhaire?ref=tn_tnmn
The first person to get the right answer will win a bag of Double-Stuffed Oreo cookies - shipped anywhere upon provision of a deliverable address!  :-) 

Let's get guessing!  And remember, I'm a VERY CREATIVE guy!  I'll post the winner and answer when determined...