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MY GIRL COOKIE
Cookie was born in the back yard of a house I used to pass on my way to school. I watched the pups grow each day as they frolicked in the grass, playing amongst themselves and just doing what puppies do. Her mother was a Shetland Sheepdog (Sheltie) named Nicky and her father was our neighbor's standard poodle Muffin, who fathered most dogs within 100 miles. I can't recall how anyone knew Muffin was the dad but assume someone caught them in the act. There was never any doubt because she looked a lot like a poodle and not much like a sheltie.
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Being an eight year old kid, it didn't occur to me that families don't keep entire litters of puppies. I later found out that they gave them away! After about two months a sign went up on the chain linked fence... "Free Puppies." WOW! I immediately knocked on the door and lied, " Hi, my Mom told me to come over and get a puppy." To my surprise I left with one inside of five minutes. I took her home to my mother who immediately marched me back to the house and returned the little thing to it's mother. I only had her an hour but was madly attached to her and began the obligatory hysterical crying and pouting and whining and moaning that you'd expect from an eight year old in this situation.
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My dad came home from work and was told why I was crying so I, along with my brother who had now joined in started working on him. The old man was a softy, but he wasn't crazy about the idea of a dog in the house. My parents talked about it for a day or two and then I came home from school and there was a pup waiting for me! I can still remember jumping for joy! It wasn't the same one as I had dragged home a few days before but one of her sisters. No matter to me.
I remember my my dad laying down the rules. "The dog stays in the garage with newspaper until she's house broken. If she goes on the paper we'll keep her, if not she's gone!" He was very serious. The morning after her first night, Billy and I went running into the garage to find that she had left puddles everywhere EXCEPT the paper! Oh, no! Being crafty little bastards we simply put the newspaper on top of the puddles to make it appear that's where she went. Either the old man fell for it or he knew what we did and respected our efforts.
Cookie, as she would later be named after experimenting with "Toodles" and "Cupcake" was the ultimate pet. House-broken in ten days she never went on a rug in her life. Tennis balls were the greatest things in the world and the squirrel was her sworn enemy. Intelligent and happy beyond belief, she was my constant companion and hiking buddy until she could no longer keep up with me 15 years later. Growing up with her by my side was like a Disney movie, every boy's dream dog. She was a wonderful and faithful friend and always happy to see me. I miss Cookie and her ever-wagging tail and think about her constantly.
READ THIS!!
The best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his worst enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith.
The money that man has, he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it the most. A man's reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads.
The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him and the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous... is his dog.
A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer, he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounters with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince.
When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him to guard against danger, to fight against his enemies, and when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by his graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even to death.
---- From a speech delivered in 1870 by Missouri's Senator George Graham Vest, lawyer for the plaintiff in a suit against a man who had killed his dog. Vest won the case.