I went to a private kindergarten, taught buy a retired teacher who had taught two of my older siblings. Her husband who hunted birds with a Red Cocker Spaniel died over the summer. He and I adopted each other.
Mom would come pick me up, and start driving home, and the dog would chase the car until Mom felt sorry for him, and would stop and pick him up, and take him back home. After about two weeks, the teacher decided he was mine.
The family joke was that I, who am color blind, thought he was brown and named him Browny.
He was a great dog for a farm kid, who was responsible for taking car of he chickens, and gathering the eggs. He‘d get next to me and keep them from trying to peck me. When I went into the hen house to gather eggs he’d run the hens out and guard the door to keep them out while I gathered the eggs. If one of them got out of the pen, he would run it down, and bring it back. He didn’t see much difference between a chicken and a wounded pheasant.
First got him home, he chased the Tom cat. That lasted about two weeks. I was trying to train him to leave the cat alone. He saw the cat across the yard, and took off after him. The cat high tailed it for the barn, and the dog chased him in. I was running after them telling him to get back here. I got to the barn just in time to see the cat launch out of the hayloft onto his neck. Where the cat stayed for several minutes, biting his ears, and digging in his claws, as the dog kiy-eyed around the barn trying shake him off. After that I was done training him to leave cats alone. He’d stay back about ten feet and bark, and growl at them, if they crossed paths. But he no longer had any desire to catch up with one.
