A lady she ain't

Following are two items that I put in a news letter I put out once a week when I lived in Utah and owned a parts house in a small town.

Lady
2-22-91 A LADY SHE AIN'T
In fact, she ain't nothing but a hound dog. Now I like dogs, but I'm not much into ownership. They irritate my cats. And if you live in town they usually irritate some of the neighbors. But Marie decided she wanted a pup. I suspect she decided she would never be able to control me and a woman needs something to boss around. It's the mother instinct. She decided on a mixed hound puppy. Eight weeks old and cute as a button.

We named her Lady. Ha !! This dog has a little nuclear reactor in it. Takes her about three tenths of one second to get from end of the house to the other and back again. I wouldn't say she's gay, but she especially likes pretty women. So if you come in the store carry a stick or kiss your hosiery goodbye. You can get her to sit for a goodie but this dog is going to fail obedience class. She constantly jumps up on you, bites you, wanders away on walks and generally disobeys you. Now to me she's just being a pup but it really frustrates Marie. I can't help but love something that likes junk food, beer, cigarettes, pretty women, lounging on the couch with me, and of course, running Marie up the wall. Yup !! A lady she ain't. But she's a gal after my own heart.

7-5-91
A CLASS ACT
I didn't want to be involved in dog ownership and I told Marie so when she started talking about getting a pup. But she brought home a hound pup, cute little bugger. I couldn't help but to become attached to her. As she developed I became even more so. She was easy to housebreak but one thing that amazed me was that she wouldn't even go in her pen outside. Always waited till one of us arrived to let her out. Cleanest dog I've ever seen.

But she was a pain in the butt. Always climbing up on my lap. Jumping on me, licking the top of my beer can. Chewing me out when I got home and plopped down on the couch to rest when she wanted to play or go run. Jumping on customers at the store till I decided she couldn't come here anymore. That meant penning her up and I hated doing that, seemed like putting her in jail. I took her wherever I could. Even let her ride in the car and spread hair all over. Sitting there on the front seat holding her head like she did she looked....well regal.

A good looking dog with good lines. Bred and built to run, and with a spirit to match. And my god that dog could run. Each one mile walk to me was a ten mile run to her, criss-crossing in front of me, that nose going ninety miles an hour. Then disappearing and me wondering where the heck she was and five minutes later her barreling in from a completely unexpected direction, tearing by me like she knew exactly where I was all the time. Sometimes she didn't know if her name was Lady or Honey as I called her both.

Last Sunday I decided that we would go to Price to watch the entrances in the Great American Auto Race come through. I wanted to take Lady but Marie didn't think it was a good idea so we penned her up and headed out. After seeing the cars at Price I decided to drive on to Green River just to look around. It was late by the time we returned home. I felt bad about penning Lady up all day so asked Marie if we could take her for a walk, so off we went. When we got to the county road I wasn't concerned about cars as she always seemed careful around ours. We followed the road for a ways and I mentioned to Marie that I wish I could run like that. Lady didn't stay on the road much. She caught a scent and stood up on her hind legs and spun around. Beautiful and graceful she was and I admired her. Like a butterfly floating along pirouetting. She jumped a rabbit and that kept her busy for a bit. Marie mentioned that on her upcoming birthday we should weigh her again.

We turned off the road into the cedars along the banks overlooking the Strawberry River. Four or Five hundred feet down and dangerously steep. We trapped ourselves and had to backtrack. I kept calling Lady back, she would get to close to the edge. Went by the oil well location and stopped to speak to a neighbor we seldom see. He had just returned from Oregon and was preparing for a trip to the old country. We headed home and had to cross the county road again. Lady crossed first, a truck came down the road, waved at us. Don't think he knew what had hit his truck, but it was Lady running fast. On the scent of a rabbit or just trying to get back to us? She yelped and tumbled to our side of the road, I knew she was hit hard. I held her in my arms for a few minutes saying I was sorry. Marie stayed with her while I walked up to the house for the car. She died before I returned.

O' but for the recklessness of youth, great adventures abounded. Yes, on my birthday. 6-30-91 putting her in her grave was hard, I cried then and for much of the night. Yes, Lady was in ways a pain in the butt but she was a class act and I'll miss her. Your a free spirit now Lady. Run honey, run.