JD's Christmas Pup - Originally posted 12/17/08

This foto, taken in the very early 1950s, is of a happy time for me. I was an innocent youth and Cookie and I were ready for Christmas, a happy time of the year. Cookie had no idea what Christmas was, she only knew that she was getting an awful lot of attention. She was even inside the house, probably because it was too cold for her to stay outside on Washington Street in the BToS (Big Town of Savage).

As a kid, Cookie was our sole pet. She was a blessing for an only child with two working parents; she wasn't a sibling, but she certainly was a pal. It was really nice to have someone waiting with anticipation each day when I came home from school. Cookie was all excited and would run with me three houses up the street to visit grandma, all the while sniffing and chasing anything that moved, including those noisy automobiles. There weren't very many cars in the BToS back in those days, but Cookie just knew if she could bite that thing it would stop all that noise and smoke around town.

In those post war years before development, the BToS was enclosed by woods and the Little Patuxent River, and Cookie loved to go off to the woods with me. She wore herself out chasing critters and loved nothing better than cooling off by lapping up some water from the river. She'd watch those little sun perch swimming in there. I don't think she ever caught one, but it wasn't because she didn't try like the dickens. She was a persistent little pup. Those fish would flitter off as fast as she could bite the water.

I don't think Cookie knew what dog food was; if she did it was later in life. It's my belief that she ate whatever we ate, only she got her's after dinner. Table scraps were the mainstay of her diet. Wait, I do recall an occasional can of really bad looking dog food that daddy got at Storch's store up on Baltimore Street. I don't know how Cookie could eat that horrible smelling stuff, but she definitely woofed it down. I wonder if today's pups are more picky about what they eat since we've upgraded their lifestyles from outdoor dogs to indoor family members?

As I mentioned, Cookie loved to chase cars. One day she got a little too close to one of those doggone things and the rear wheel ran over her. She couldn't survive the blow and died shortly after. Cookie was about eight years old at the time. My father dug a grave down back behind the garden and Cookie was quietly laid to rest with no marker. I can't remember, but given the 'girly boy' I can be at times, I probably shed some tears. Cookie was a treasure. I loved that pup. Our little family never got another one.

There have been two other dogs in my life, Bridgette and Kipper. But I'll save their stories for another day.

JD

PS - When the foto was taken, Cookie had been with us for a couple of years and wasn't really a Christmas present for me that year. I post the foto and tell my story about Cookie for a couple of my email friends that question whether I ever really had a pet, given my current reluctance to get another. To those 'Internet Buddies', I am working toward a new pup, but it's different owning a pup today than it was 55 years ago.