Our Pets at Christmas

December 23, 2019 / Gail Grunst Genealogy / 1 Comment

Everyday until Christmas, I am going to try to post a picture from a past family Christmas.

On the left is Skipper the dog I was promised when my parents had to get rid of our dog Taby mentioned in a previous post. I got Skipper when we moved into our first house in 1953. This is 1966 and Skipper is 13 years old. He was part Cocker Spaniel and part Poodle. Today he would be called a Cockapoo, but back in 1953 he was just a mutt. Skipper lived until September of 1968 and died at age 15. We left him shaggy with long hair, and he was all black except for some white on his chin and chest. He some hairs that hung over his eyes. Skipper had a rough start to life. We had him a short time when he became sick and was diagnosed with distemper. The vet wanted to put him down, but my mother said, “no.” He stayed at the vet’s for awhile and then came home but was still sick. My mom coddled eggs for him and spoon fed him. The vet was amazed at the progress Skipper made. He had never had a dog live through distemper before. At two years old Skipper was hit by car, and he had internal injuries, bruised ribs and a sore leg. He walked with a limp for a long time. A family friend gave Skipper lots of sympathy and she would massage Skipper’s leg. Long after Skipper healed when ever they came over Skipper would limp to get sympathy and a massage.

On the right is a picture of Pierre our Poodle. This is also 1966 and Pierre is one year old. Pierre lived to ripe old age of 16. The last few years we wondered if he was senile. He would try to go behind the stove and get stuck. Pierre stayed with my folks after I married. He led a pretty quiet normal life compared to Skipper.

In the picture with Skipper the aluminum tree appears again, and those are my mother’s legs in the picture. I don’t know what she is giving him, but he seems excited about it.

Pierre is posing on the chair like a typical Poodle. He is in front of that fire place that was mentioned in a previous post.

Susie and Santa

Meet Susie (left) and Brittney (right) two Golden Retrievers. Susie and Brittney were sisters born in 1992. Brittney was actually my brother’s dog, but lived here with us for many years so I feel as though she was mine too. My husband and I would take them to the state park near us for walks. I would take Susie because she was smaller and didn’t pull as hard. Brittney was bigger and heavier built. Her coat was darker golden than Susie’s. The first couple of years they played and played until we were worn out watching them. Susie being smaller would get underneath Brittney and take a little nip. Over all Brittney was the more aggressive of the two. This picture was taken in about 1997. Brittney died first at age 13 and Susie died a couple of years later at age 15.

We have had other dogs as well, but I don’t have pictures of them at Christmas, so I will tell their stories another time.

Christmas 1948: Taby

December 10, 2019 / Gail Grunst Genealogy / 1 Comment

Everyday until Christmas, I am going to try to post a picture from a past family Christmas.

Taby 1948

It looks like he is wearing a party hat. Maybe it was New Years Eve. The back of the picture just says, “Taby 1948”. I think he was a mutt, but don’t know what mixture of breeds he might have been. I was about three when we was taken away.

I have a vague recollection of Taby. He was my parent’s dog when I was born. I believe Taby was my father’s dog before he married. My parents lived with my grandmother when they were first married so Taby knew their house. When my parents moved to an apartment across town Taby would go back and forth between the two places. My mother said that he was very good with me. I was told that the neighbors complained about him. I don’t know what he did to upset the neighbors, but it became impossible for my parents to keep him in an apartment. I have often wondered why my grandparents didn’t take him. They had a dog and apparently when my parents lived there the dogs got along. But the sad story is that we had to get rid of Taby. My father took him to a shelter “Orphans of the Storm”. I was promised when my parents bought a house we would get a dog and we did. We never gave up another one. They are with us until they take their last breath. I am a big believer that when you get a dog you keep it. They are not a piece of furniture that you throw away. Every time I see a picture of Taby, it breaks my heart. Just writing about Taby brings tears to my eyes. I wonder what happened to him, and I hope he got a good forever home.

Spruce’s Forever Home

March 25, 2017March 25, 2017 / Gail Grunst Genealogy / 1 Comment

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It seems I am always writing my ancestor’s stories, but I think there are some other stories that need to be told. I would like to tell the story of one beloved pet. I am a dog lover! I have always had a dog from the day of my birth. I have only been without a dog for a couple of months at a time in between the death of one dog and getting another one. I’d like to tell the story of our dog Spruce. Spruce was the name she got at the shelter and we just kept it. I sometimes referred to her as the “throw away dog”. When I get a dog, it is for keeps, I do not get rid of them no matter what. Once Spruce came to us, she found her forever home. According to her records, she was picked up by animal control and taken to the county shelter. No one came to claim her. If my dog ran away, I would be calling the police, animal control, and every shelter in the county to see if I could find her. I think that if her owners had looked, they would have found her. I wonder if they turned her loose or dumped her off near where she was found. Then she was adopted by a couple and brought back within the week. They claimed that she was too wild. Then my son and daughter-in-law adopted her for my granddaughter. She was estimated to be around three years old at the time. They had her for a year when they divorced and moved. Neither one could keep her because they were having a hard time finding a place to rent that would take pets. Two months prior, we just lost our Golden Retriever, Susie. We had Susie since she was six weeks old, and Susie lived to ripe old age of 15 ½. I planned on getting another Golden Retriever, when my son called begging me to take Spruce. He asked me to take her for my granddaughter so she would not have to lose her dog. I should mention that Spruce was a Beagle or as my husband would say a Bagel. Anyway, we did take Spruce.

My husband’s name is Bruce so you can imagine the confusion when I called Spruce or Bruce. Within a couple of weeks of having Spruce she had a seizure. We took her to the vet and she told us to keep track of the seizures. If she had them often, we would need medications. But as it turned out she would have them a few times a year. I wondered if this was the reason she was not wanted by previous owners. She was a spirited dog and yes she could get wild. She would run around in circles when she got excited. When someone would come over she would run around in circles, jumping from sofa to chair, and back to sofa. She came with a football that she loved. It was her favorite toy up to the day she died. We took her into our lives, and she became part of our family. We would go camping a lot in those days with our trailer, and Spruce always went along. She enjoyed the long walks with me while camping. She did not like the camp fires; and wanted to go in the trailer as soon as we lit the fire. When the grandchildren came over, they would take her outside to play. My brother spoiled her too. Every time he came over, he would take her for a walk. She would sit and stare at him with her expressive eyes until he gave in and walked her. She liked to go for rides in the car. All we had to do was think about taking her for a ride and she seemed to know it. She would start running to where her leash was hung and then look at us. She seemed to be able to read our minds. My granddaughter taught how to sit up, give paw, and a high five. Over the years, Spruce had several urinary tract infections, and we had to put her on a special diet that she was on for the rest of her life. She also had bad teeth and had to have several of them extracted. She developed a heart murmur and had a bad heart valve. In spite of all her problems, she was our little girl and we loved her. Last January she started coughing, I thought it was probably her heart. She was now 12 years old. We took her to the vet and as it turned out it wasn’t her heart, it was lung cancer. They said she had a few weeks to a couple of months to live. We took her home with medicine for the cough, pain medication, steroids, and medication to open up her bronchial tubes. She did well on the medication. There were times we almost forget she was sick.

In September she was having difficulty breathing, and we thought it was the end. We took her to vet with the idea that we were going to have her put down. But the vet told us that it could be pneumonia caused by the cancer. She would need to take a chest x-ray to confirm the pneumonia. So we had the chest x-ray done and the vet seemed to think she could treat the pneumonia and give her a couple of more months. We opted to do that and took her home again with antibiotics. She responded well to the antibiotics, but she needed to be on them longer than the usual 10 days and was on them for three weeks. She recovered from the pneumonia and seemed to do well once again. Of course, she had slowed down and no longer ran in circles and jumped on furniture. She had her favorite spot on the sofa and did a lot of sleeping. She still loved to eat especially table food. We no longer followed the strict diet for her bladder problems. We figured let her have what she wants. She had her routine, when it was time for bed we would say, “It’s time for bed”, and she would get off the couch; go to the kitchen door to go outside. She would go out and do her thing, come right in, and wait for her treat by the kitchen counter. We would then go to our bedroom, and she would lie down on her bed, which was next to our bed. She was set for the night. Sometimes in the morning, we had to wake her up during the last year. She would go outside and come right in as soon as she finished. She would wait by the kitchen counter for her medicine which I wrapped in meat. Whenever she would not eat her dog food, I would make her scrambled eggs, or cook ground beef mixed with rice and hard-boiled eggs. She seemed to know when I was frying up ground beef for her dinner as opposed to cooking it for our dinner. Once again she seemed to be able to read my mind.

Over the Christmas Holiday she stopped eating or drinking, and I knew it was the end. The vet was closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so I just tried to make her as comfortable as possible. I called the vet on Monday, but they were still closed for Christmas. I called the emergency vet because I didn’t want her to suffer another day. They told us to bring her in. My husband and I then got dressed to take her to the vet. After I dressed, I went back to check on her and she was gone. I called to my husband that she had passed. My son and grandson were here and they came into the room too. I cleaned her up and sat down next to her and cried. I felt bad that I was not sitting with her when she passed. I’m glad that we were the ones she finally ended up with. She was a good dog, and she deserved a forever home with people who loved her. We had her body cremated and the urn now sits on my fireplace mantle, and at the other end is our Golden Retriever, Susie. I still have not been able to throw out her bed or toys. Spruce, Sprucie, Sweet Pea, Honey Bun, Big Girl, you are loved, and we will never forget you. Glad the others didn’t want you so God sent you to me. Some day we shall meet again. Until then, we will think of you and all the good times we had with you. Daddy and I love you, RIP.