Chasing the dog

I grew up in two different houses on Monte Drive in Mandan, ND.  The houses were on either side of the Rader household.  I went to school with Rhonda Rader and spent plenty of time at her house playing as a kid. 

I attended Lewis and Clark grade school.  We walked to school.  It was only a few blocks. 

There was a sidewalk thru the middle of our block that we’d take.  Such a nice touch when I think about it!  I’m not sure who was inspired to put that sidewalk thru the middle of the block but it was a nice place to walk.  It’s now part of my childhood memories.  As I write about it I remember the fences on either side and the greenery that added the “pretty” effect to the walk.  It felt rather like a pretty garden path that you couldn’t go off of without climbing a fence into someone’s yard.  We all knew to be respectful of other people’s property! 

Well, except for the lovely lady at the end of our street.  I wish I could recall her name!  When we’d come across injured birds we’d take them to her.  She would fix them up. 

She had a lovely garden in her yard and raspberry bushes.  The bushes ran in rows.  I remember crouching down in between the rows, reaching thru the poking branches to get at those pretty berries and eating them as quickly as I could pick them.  If she had bad harvests it was probably my fault.  I can’t even recall for sure if I had any cohorts.  Probably, but I don’t recall for sure and I won’t incriminate them.  There was something wonderful about having stolen raspberries!  At least as far as I was concerned. 

There are so many memories of my years in that neighborhood!  Mostly good.  The one that comes dancing to my mind today is a memory of our dog Penny. 

We had two dogs most of the time.  My Mom believed that dogs needed other dogs to be happy and for company when their people weren’t home so I grew up with multiples in the house. 

When we had Penny we also had Snoox.  I’m not sure either dog was especially fond of the other.  I don’t recall them being great friends.  Snoox was a pure bred cocker spaniel with a mean streak.  She had puppies and then would attack them if they got too close to her food dish.  She made one of their eyes bleed once.  She didn’t win any motherhood awards.  I loved that dog tho and she loved me.  Even after all these years I can still recall her face and how silky her fur felt under my hand. 

Penny was a mutt.  We guessed she might have some sheltie or border collie in her.  She was multi colored on white with flowing feathers on her legs.  She had a deep chest and tho relatively small, she was built for speed.  I always imagined she was part greyhound!  There weren’t a lot of greyhounds in ND (not a great climate for them) so I rather doubt she was but her build, aside from the longer hair, made me think of a small greyhound. 

Penny was my Mom’s dog.  She loved my Mom above all other human beings. 

She loved our Grandma almost as much.  She would go bat shit crazy when Grandma would come for visits and her trademark was to sit on Grandma’s feet as soon as she calmed down from her hysterical joy enough to do so. 

My Mom and I were talking about her the other night on the phone.  About how years later, after Mom had sent her to live with Ralph Berger (he had a place on the river where Penny could run freely and she stayed with him until she died) she brought Grandma out for a visit.  It had been years since they’d last seen each other but Penny remembered!  She, once again, showed her hysterical joy at Grandma’s presence and then sat on her feet.  Mom says Grandma threw her head back and roared a great laugh about it!  Grandma used to act annoyed by Penny’s adoration but she was also charmed by it in spite of herself.  Kind of hard to resist someone who loves you so much even if they are hairy and want to give you slobber kisses, which wasn't really Grandma's style.

At our house, during the years when we had Penny, we had to be very careful going in and out of the door because Penny could squeeze past you, given the opportunity, and she’d be gone like a shot!

Those great escapes of Penny were what my mind wandered to this morning.  One of my favorites was on a warm summer evening.  Penny got out and her true joy began! 

All of the neighborhood kids suddenly had purpose also.  Everyone on the block knew Penny.  She’d get loose and the chase was on!

I remember my siblings and I and my neighborhood friends all racing around, yelling strategy to each other, running as fast as we could, trying to outsmart and catch the dog. 

I remember Penny running flat out, like a little bolt of colorful greased lightning, tongue lolling out the side of her mouth as she flew, racing as fast as she could around the grassy area at the end of the street.  She looked like she was laughing at us dog style.

I remember the gasps of fear when she’d race across Sunset Drive on her way to the even larger grassy expanses on the other side.  All of us kids following more slowly, being wisely wary of the traffic. 

It was a great game to her.  It was a game to us also though we never planned it. Penny planned it. 

Her great joy was racing like the wind and keeping just out of our reach until she’d finally had enough and decided to let us catch her.  I can’t think of Penny without thinking of her racing, low to the ground, at incredible speed with that tongue hanging out and the look of joy on her face.  I will also remember running with my friends trying to catch her on a warm summer evening. 

Dogs really can look joyful.  She certainly did!