Thursday, October 02, 2014

Throwback Thursday

These are the only two photographs I have of my first dog, Lassie. When I was about four or five years old, my dad brought a newly weaned collie puppy home. When I saw her, the story goes, I yelled, "It's Lassie!" and that was forever her name. She and I were inseparable those first years. She naturally became the family dog, but I always thought of here as "mine."

Lassie around 1965, sitting under my dad's chair. Just a pup.

We lived in the country at the time and there were no leashes or fenced-in yards. We just went outside and played. Lassie would come and go as she pleased. She did chase cars as a puppy and actually got clipped by one, but it wasn't serious and she stopped chasing cars after that. The years went by and my family moved a lot, and Lassie adjusted every time. And still, I don't ever remember having a leash for her. We just let her out and she wandered around, always coming back home. I remember once, at a campground in the 70s, having to tie a rope around her neck to walk her because they had instituted a leash rule, but that was the only time.

A photo I took of Lassie in 1975. She was still in good health then.

In 1977 I was a senior in high school and Lassie was thirteen years old. She developed a series of problems and my dad took her to the vet a few times. The prognosis wasn't good and the last time she went to the vet she didn't come back. I was in denial about it all and pretended that everything was ok, but I really missed that dog. It wasn't until 1992 that Ken and I adopted my second dog, Collette. She was a Shetland mix and looked like a smaller version of Lassie. Now we have Callie, another collie (actually a border collie, but they're all related). There's something about sheep dogs!

10 comments:

  1. Nice memories....
    yes, there is definitely something about collies...
    they get right under your skin.

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  2. She was Lassie to you, and you were probably Timmy to her! LOL She's a beautiful dog--now I know why you guys were so attracted to Collette at the Humane Society. Another beauty. Collies were my favorite dog as a kid, probably because of the Lassie TV show. You sure don't see them around much anymore. Practically the only dogs you can find at the Humane Society these days are chihuahuas and pit bulls.

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  3. I love the colonial fabric on your dad's chair (the liberty bell esp, since I live in its hometown!). what a beautiful animal companion lassie was!

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    1. anne marie, a couple years after that photo was taken, my dad fell asleep in that chair with a lit cigarette. The chair caught fire and burned up. Dad was not hurt; he woke up in time and chucked the chair out the front door. I remember that it was an awful orange color!

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  4. A lovely post. Lassie was a fine looking dog.

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  5. Awwwww :)
    (And... who didn't have a braided rug on the floor, and Early American cotton twill slipcovers on the living room furniture!? Did you have wallpaper with liberty bells and bald eagles, too? We did! And a big wrought iron flying eagle over the fireplace :) )

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    1. judy, no, no wallpaper like that! For decades we had a framed (and under glass) bas-relief sculpted likeness of the 19th century clipper ship Thermopylae over the fireplace. Klassy. I wonder if my mom still has it?

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  6. One of my happiest childhood moments was getting a wire-haired terrier that I named Spot from my Sally, Dick and Jane reader (before your time). We had the braided rug, too. You are lucky to have a photo of Lassie like this one- collie pups are almost as cute as poodle babies- just pulling your leg.

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  7. Walt,
    A very nice "Throwback Thursday" posting. You have given me an idea for my next "Throwback Thursday" posting, our first family dog "Sam."
    Thanks!
    Ron

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  8. I always wanted a "Lassie" myself when I was a kid, but was never lucky enough. So nice that you've carried her memory forward with your two later dogs. Two sweet photos. I love Lassie emerging from beneath that American Colonial chair!

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