Our father only became a pet lover in his later years; before that it was always my mother, brother, and then me.

A few years before I came along, my brother had a black chow dog named Pet. Both he and my mother had a strong preference for chow dogs and most of them seem to have been black!

Pet was a lot of help to my mother.

WW11 Came. Walter went to the Philippines. Pet stayed with the family.

Considering her past experiences, you would think that our mother would have been more savvy; but, a mad dog in the streets and one in your home, one that you know and which you love, are two very different things.

She noticed that Pet was acting a bit "out of sorts" and that she was spending most of her time in Walter's room under his bed; but, she told herself that he just missed Walter, that was all. She worried Pet wasn't eating enough and came to the room several times trying to get the dog to come to the kitchen where he was usually fed. Pet stayed under the bed. Finally she brought the food and some water to the bedroom and pushed it under the bed. Then she busied herself with a little dusting in the room and changed the bed. Even if Walter was not sleeping in it, the bed needed to be changed regularly or bedbugs could be the result. The bed changing finished, she looked under the bed one more time and saw that Pet had not touched the food. She told Pet "Ok suit yourself." but decided to leave the food and water there. She started to get the old bedding and take it to be washed. It was at that point, that she later told me, she felt the hairs on her head and all along her back suddenly seem to rise! She turned and there was Pet on the bed, couched, ready to spring! Somehow Mama made it out that door a split second before she felt the "thud" of Pet's body hitting it! If she had not, I would not be here to tell you this story.

Animal control came and took the dog. Later they called and said it was rabies.

After I came along and we were living on Lem Turn Road, we had two dogs go mad. One was the terrier mentioned here. The other was a mixed breed dog that I do not remember, either her or anything about what happened to her. It was all told to me later.

This dog liked turnip greens better than anything else that you could give her. So they called her "Greens." She was a black dog and she had just had three pretty puppies: one black, one white, and one red! This time Mama thought it had just been a difficult birth. So she fixed up a pot of turnip greens and brought some to the dog whose head she lifted up in attempt to make her eat. When she tried this, Greens suddenly rolled away from her all the way across the room until she hit a chair which she then began biting furiously!

It was rabies once again.

The puppies were judged all right and were given away to neighbors so my mother did know what happened to them. Each one survived to be full grown; but, all three eventually died of rabies!

My mother also told the story of how, when she was still young and living with her parents in Eastport, a mockingbird attacked a dog. A number of people saw it and at first thought it quite funny because the dog had been doing nothing to the bird! Then it became not so funny as the bird kept on and on, no matter what the dog did to get away. Finally someone took pity on the poor dog and shot the bird. A short time later, the dog went mad; and, once again people wondered.

Also while she was living in Eastport, there was an old woman who had a mongrel dog she thought the world of. A mad dog went for her and her dog jumped between them and eventually managed to kill the other dog; but, at terribly cost to itself for their were terrible gaping wounds that wouldn't heal and kept dripping water. Nevertheless the woman kept tending the dog, hoping against hope; but, to no avail. The dog went mad. Only then did she agree to have it shot.

My final story does not concern rabies; but, a ghostly cat!
It is the most difficult story to tell so I have saved it til last.