Orville Wright's Dog "Scipio - 1917 Gallery 7
Not just "Pets" they are...
Four Legged Family
Orville Wright's Dog "Scipio - 1917
I remember back when I was researching the Wright Brothers for my Air Force Museum articles, I came across a few photos that Orville Wright took of his Saint Bernard dog, Scipio. Instantly, it gave me a new perspective on who he was as a person.
With photography in it's infancy back in the early part of the 1900's, I found it amazing that Orville cared enough about Scipio to take what was probably some fairly expensive photographs. Finding those photos gave me a greater insight into the man that I was researching.
Likewise, while I was building this website, I wanted to include a special page for some of my four legged family members.
While human family photos probably deserve a higher level of privacy than can be afforded by a public website, I feel the exact opposite about showing off some of these photos. It's my way of Honoring them.
So, here below, are just a few frames of the many I've taken over the years. Some of these good friends are gone now, but all were loved and live on in our memory.
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
Groucho Marx
Jo Jo
Throughout most of the 1980s and early 1990s, the Alpha Dog at our house was a
tan & black German Shepherd named Jo Jo.
Like all of our dogs, we got Jo Jo from one of the local humane shelters. He was about a year and a half old when he became part of the family.
Originally, all I wanted was a good watchdog to look out for the property whenever we were not around. Jo Jo was that, and so much more. Although he spent the overnight hours outside in a home brew dog house and fenced in pen, for almost all of his long life, Jo Jo had free reign of the property.
In all the years Jo Jo was with us he wandered off the property only one time. Most often, you'd find him relaxing on the deck right by the patio door.
Even when Jo Jo was tired, he remained ever vigilante and one of the most memorable moments I have of Jo Jo happened with the entire family watching. It was a weekend afternoon in the spring or early summer, when a neighbor dog mistakenly found his way onto our property. Before we humans were even aware of the intruder, Jo Jo sprang into action. All of a sudden, our normally tranquil pooch, became guard dog supreme.
Within seconds, Jo Jo was in a dominant position above the other dog with lots of growling and pearly white teeth showing. A few seconds later, it was all over as Jo Jo let the other dog go. The neighbor's dog never made the mistake of wandering onto our (Jo Jo's) property again.
It took the family quite a long time to get over losing Jo Jo. It was especially painful for the kids. Bonnie and I had other dogs before, but to the kids, it seemed like Jo Jo was always there, always a part of our lives.
Hemmingway aka; "Hemmy"
Somewhere during Jo Jo's reign in the late 1980s a little stray cat found her
way onto our property.
Unlike the episode with our neighbor's dog, even Jo Jo sensed that this furry creature wasn't much of a threat to our happy home. Jo Jo never gave her much notice.
At the time, I was not in favor of encouraging cats to stay around the house. But in the end, I was overruled by the rest of the family (mainly Gretchen & Bonnie) and the cat seemed to hang around more and more. Eventually, the little kitty proved to be a fearless catcher of every small thing that crawled or flew around the backyard; including Squirrels, Mice, Chipmunks, and even the occasional Blue Jay. This "cute" little ball of fur has lots of razor sharp claws and knows exactly how to use them.
It was Gretchen who named her Hemmingway. Because our little Kitty has no less than eight toes on each of her two front paws. You see, as the story goes, the writer Earnest Hemmingway was once given a cat with multiple toes. From then on, he had a particular fondness for these animals and kept many polydactyl felines around his home in Key West Florida.
Today, there is a Hemmingway museum on the Key West property which is now home
to many descendants of those original Hemmingway cats. So, Hemmingway or just "Hemmy" for
short, became another member of the family and is still with us today.
While even now, Hemmy remains very independent and enjoys her freedom outdoors, in the past few years she has consented to coming into the patio for feeding and the occasional snooze.
As she's gotten older, she's mellowed a bit. But she's still lethal enough to catch the occasional chipmunk or field mouse. In the winter months Hemmy spends much of the time indoors, inside our patio, curled up in her little cat bed.
The above photo on the right is typical of most mornings. It shows Hemmy pounding on the patio window glass, with all eight toes, hoping to catch my attention so I'll let her in for breakfast. The photo at left is just another cute cat moment from September 1, 2001.
Beezer "dah Beeze"
Jo Jo was a hard act to follow, but about a year after his passing, we were all
ready to welcome a new pooch into the family.
So in February of 1998 just in time for Zach's birthday, Bonnie and I went in search of some four legged friendship.
I guess whenever a dog shelter gets a stray Beagle they name it "Snoopy". Although we hated the name Snoopy, right from the start, we knew that this Black and White ball of energy was going to be our dog.
The Shelter gave us a hard time about adopting Snoopy. It frankly didn't seem like they wanted to adopt out dogs at all. But nonetheless, we persevered and after several attempts, the Beagle formerly named Snoopy was finally headed home with us.
When we finally got Snoopy home I remember looking into his eyes while trying out other names just to see if any of them evoked a response... "Spot" "Old Yeller" "Rin, Tin, Tin"... Nothing seemed to work. So, we needed to find a new name for this pooch.
Zach got the honor of renaming Snoop. After much thought Snoopy was renamed after one of Zach's high school buddies, Justin Beezer. Justin was honored to have a new namesake and in the spring of 1998, Snoopy officially became "Beezer". The name seemed to fit both Justin and the new pooch.
Although Beezer loved being outdoors, and turned my backyard into a moonscape, he was definitely an inside dog
when it came to the overnight hours.
There was no way this pampered pooch would survive the wilds of the back yard
for more than a few hours and certainly not overnight.
Beeze, was probably the smartest dog I have ever known. He already came factory installed with knowing several commands and a few tricks, but you could also teach him to do almost anything.
When teaching Beezer a new trick like "High-Fiving" for a biscuit, or ringing the back door bell when he wanted to go outside, you could look into Beezer's eyes and almost see him thinking... "What does this stupid human want of me this time". Soon he'd figure it out and another task was mastered.
One day, Beezer and I were home alone together and horsing around. Well, quite by accident, I started growling at him. The growling soon became howling and all of a sudden, I saw Beezer's face light up. Something about what I was "saying" to him made sense. Then, within a minute or two, he howled back at me. Soon, we were both howling in unison. I'd go up a little higher in key and Beezer would follow me up there with his voice. I'd howl longer and louder and so would he. It was cool and we both loved it.
Later, that day, when Bonnie came home from work and I said "Here, watch what
Beezer and I can do together." Well, naturally, Beezer just looked at me and never
howled once. Beeze loved howling, but not in front of anyone else.
For a long time, I kept telling everyone about our howling, but nobody believed
me because Beeze wouldn't do it in front of anyone. It was just "our secret" thing to do when no one else was
around.
Bonnie of course never believed me and thought I was nuts whenever I'd be howling at Beeze and he'd just be sitting there pretending not to care.
So, one day, I got the bright idea to audio tape our singing session together. Sure enough, without anyone else around, Old Beeze sang like a bird, but he wouldn't do it in "Public" for a long time.
Eventually, Beezer's stage fright dissipated and he began howling with Zach and other people, but for a long time it was just a special thing between Beezer and me.
Beezer's passing was traumatic for Bonnie and I. Beeze always had health issues, but in his last few months his health deteriorated rapidly and Bonnie and I made many trips to the Vet and local animal hospital. With the end nearing on a Snowy Sunday afternoon in January Beezer took a real turn for the worst. So, Bonnie and I both made the decision to put him down. The Vet at the animal hospital told us that he would have died within a short time. So, even though it was hard on us, it was probably the best for him.
Spunky
Twenty four hours after putting Beezer down, I found myself coming home from work and stopped in traffic on the Garden State Parkway. The backup seemed endless and I was forced to take an alternate route home.
As fate would have it, the detour took me right past both the local Animal
hospital and the Humane Shelter where we first met Beezer six or
seven years earlier.
Without even thinking much about it, within a few moments I found myself inside the shelter walking up and down among the dozens of dogs and cats. Somehow, it felt good to hear the barking again, to see all the shiny faces and the wagging tails filled with hope. Although there were many cute dogs at the shelter, I knew it was way too soon to think about bringing home a new friend.
A week or so later, with Beeze still on my mind, I was at lunch with my friend Diana, when she told me about
another shelter which was on my way home. I thought it might be nice to
once again hear the sound of barking and perhaps get the feel of fur again.
When I walked into the animal shelter that day, I asked if they had any Beagles. "Yes," the girl said... "Just One" Well, to make a long story very short, about a month after losing Beezer, Spunky became the newest member of our family in February of 2005.
Right from the start, Spunky was a handful. He had been dropped off at the shelter by some previous owners who no longer wanted him and had remained in the shelter for about 8 or 9 months. During that time, he was adopted out once for about 24 hours.
Bonnie & Spunky Enjoying a Snooze - January 2007
The previous adoptee family returned Spunky, saying that he was "Un-Controllable".
They also said that he had a violent temper towards other animals and seemed to have no discipline at all.
After that, Spunky was living on borrowed time in the shelter. One of the
shelter worker suggested that if he were not adopted soon, he would be put down.
At the time, I remember thinking that they probably always say things like that, just so you'll feel sorry for the animal and want to adopt him. But after we got Spunky home, I understood why someone gave him that name.
Well, at this writing, we've had Spunky for about 2 years now and counting and he is still a work in progress. But he is 1000 times better than when he first brought him into our home. Just like raising kids, what Spunky needs most is discipline and a sense of structure; both of which he never got before coming to Casa Palamara.
Spunky is a great addition to our home and he has become Bonnie's exercise partner as they chase each other around the living room couch every evening after supper. The top photo shows Spunky posing for our 2005 Christmas card.
One thing Spunky now
knows and accepts is this; there are many Alpha Dogs in our house, but He
isn't one of them.
I am an Alpha Dog, Bonnie is an Alpha Dog, and sometimes even Hemmingway is an Alpha Dog, but Spunky now knows that he's just one of the tribe. He actually seems to like it better that way. The pressure is off and he's free to just lay around the house and enjoy life.
Here on the right the "Spunkster", sharing his patio bed on a cold January morning with his new pal, Hemmy. This would never have happened when we first brought Spunky home. Hemmy was willing, but Spunky was not. Now, they "Hang" together.
Now, I ask you, does this dog look "Un-Controllable to you?
And finally, there's this....
Tillie... "the Hon"
Technically I guess, Tillie is not a "pet" in the normal sense. But I do think the stone goose fills a similar roll around my Mother-In-Law's happy home in Northwestern, Ohio. Mom says she's had Tillie for about 8 or 9 years now and she has more than 25 different outfits for her.
Usually, Tillie dresses in an appropriate outfit to match the season. In the summer time she's clad in Bikini, and around the Christmas Holidays she's dressed up as one of Santa's Elves.
Tillie weighs about 25 pounds, so any chance of her flying away is pretty much out of the question. Mom says she's the perfect "Pet". "She doesn't bark, doesn't eat much, never sheds and rarely messes up the lawn." What more could anyone ask. Way to go Mom!
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