My Own Family in Photos
Me, Cookie, with some of my needlework and my usual pile of clutter
on the bar.
Dave doing his Civil War re-enactment thing. He dressed as either a Yankee or a Rebel,
depending on which was needed more. (He has since learned that his great-grandfather fought for the Union, but
his great-grandfather's brother fought for the Confederacy - a real case of brother-against-brother.)
Dave and two friends dressed out to do a program at the elementary
school where I was teaching a few years ago. The school secretary hadn't
been informed of this program. She took one look at these vagrants who
had wandered out onto the school playground and set up a tent and called
the Sheriff's Department.
Dave watching TV with a little help from Tater and Wilbur.
(Dave's gonna kill me for including this, but it's simply too special not to include. Get it while you can. He may make me take it down.)
Me with Wilbur and the sweatshirt my brother gave me for Christmas.
Wilbur was a Christmas present from the same wacky friend who gave us
Billy Butt-Head as a wedding present. (Don't you wish you had a friend
like that?) Wilbur grew up to be a 300 pound HOG
He wasn't supposed to get so big! No, we didn't
keep him in the house after that first winter - although he was trained to a
litter pan. We decided this pig was sooey-cidal after he choked on his
veggies and Dave had to give him a "hamlich" maneuver, then tried to
smother himself in a pillow and I almost had to give him
mouth-to-snout resuscitation. And then there was the day that he tried
to floss his teeth on the hog wire, and every neighbor within a mile
radius heard him screaming and rushed over to see what was wrong.
He was entertaining, but we had to leave him with a
friend in Linden when we moved.
Dave with his daughter Chris, her husband Don Lake, and their son
Joshua. There's a new member of the family now who hadn't arrived
when this photo was taken - Matthew Lake.
BoBo, the first cocker I trained and showed. He finished his CDX title
but couldn't go on to take his Utility title or Tracking title - he had no
sense of smell. My mother was so amazed that he would even "go pottie"
on command. He paved the way for Tater, Charm, Chips, Ace, and his his
own puppy, Scooter.
Three of "my little boys" - Tater, Scooter, and Ace. They had just mopped
up at a match. Tater took first in Utility, Ace took first in Pre-novice, and
Scooter took first in Novice and was the High Scoring Dog from all the
classes. The kennel club invited me back the next year - but as a judge so
my dogs couldn't run off with all the ribbons again.
Ace retrieving over the high jump. It takes a lotta carefully coordinated
ear-flapping to propel all that hair over one of these jumps.
Freckles - I guess I put as many miles on that horse as a lot of people put
on cars. I trained a young colt too, and he really showed potential, but
my ex-husband sold him one day while I was at work. I never saw him
again and it broke my heart. But, like I
said, my husband at that time is now my EX- husband.