Cruelty To Animals

The ferret thread jiggled a memory. Some memories, you sorta keep buried.

When I was 14, my dog got the bad habit of killing a neighbor's turkeys. We tried all the usual stuff. Didn't work. So, the dog had to go. My dog, my responsibility. I shot her. Spent a lot of that night crying.

Ya see, in farm and ranch country folks don't want a dog with bad habits, particularly a female. And folks didn't even think of a vet in those days, unless a valuable animal like a registered Hereford or a good quarter-horse was involved..."Put down" a dog? You crazy? Spend cash money for that?

Reality and responsibility go hand-in-hand. Some folks might think I'm harsh, but I've never asked anybody else to be my Big Nanny. And I'll never ask somebody else to do anything I wouldn't do: Cleaning toilets, butchering meat, paying my own way--or killing my own dog.

Art