We're Pet People

I listed five pets that brought me joy over the years in my positivity journal, including our most recent pet - Lily, a tan chihuahua dog, who died in April during coronavirus lockdown. When I first joined Find-a-grave, occasionally I ran into pet memorials (yes, Find-a-grave allows them) and at the time, I thought it silly to have them on there, but I've changed my mind since then as making a memorial for Lily brought me some measure of comfort after she passed. 

She joined our family in 2009 after a trip to Tennessee to visit family for Thanksgiving and we brought her home with us. Since she was a rescue dog, her guesstimated age was about 10 months old at that time. She was very afraid of the car and rode on my shoulder the whole way home in panic mode, but since that time, she loved to go riding as her daddy spoiled her by buying a treat (hotdog) for her at Quik-trip when he stopped to buy gas and a coke. She also went with us on many weekender vacation trips and was a good rider. 

I've been spring cleaning and finding things of Lily's. Some I've packed away, in case we decide to add a new pet to our household in the future, but holding them in my hands makes me miss her. She balanced out the females to the males in our home and we had her for ten years. As her Find-a-grave memorial states, I taught her many things for she was a smart dog and good company. I mentioned her in this article about genealogy code here. 

Today, I remembered that I had some documents concerning her shots, etc. packed away in a filing cabinet. So I dug them out and thought that they might be good documents to prove our residence at the time as they have our address written on them.  However, since this is a sample, I've taken care to remove our address from the below record for this article. 

Here's a list of other pets that I remember. I have a few more records in my filing cabinet for other pets like Ami, Baby, and Hunter. I remember a few more critters that our family kept as pets, but will have to dig for their names to add to this list. 

1. Ami (D. Rush; female Bichon Frise dog)
2. Baby Cakes (D. Rush;  male bicolor cat)
3. Blackie (J. Ullom's male farm dog; they thought he was a mutt, but he looked like a black Irish Setter)
4. Bumbles (S. Yoder; cat)
5. Candy (J. Ullom's rat terrier)
6. Darby (P. Eubank; male dog)
7. Darcy (D. Rush; male Sheltie dog)
8. "Don't remember name" pets (finches, fish, gerbils, hamsters, a hermit crab, a horned toad, lizards, turtles)
9. Diamond (I.L. Rush; horse) 
10. Freckles (N. Rush's male Brittany Spaniel dog)
11.  Ginger (N. O'Neal; female Lhasa Apso dog)
12. Gracie (M. Rush; Great Danes)
13.  Hunter (D. Rush; Pomeranian)
14. King (M. Rush; Great Dane)
15. Lily (D. Rush; chihuahua)
16. Misty (D. Rush; pet rabbit) 
17. Nancy (J. Ullom; Shetland pony)
18. Nellie (I.L. Rush; horse)
19. Nova (S. Yoder; cat)
20.  Perry (D. Rush; parakeet)
21.  Pretty Boy (N. O'Neal; canary)
22.  Rusty (R. O'Neal; Irish setter)
23.  Sam (N. O'Neal; Beagle dog)
24. Shirley (I.L. Rush; horse)
25. Snowflake (I.L. Rush; horse)
26. Song (N. O'Neal; female Siamese cat)
27. Sugar (I.L. Rush; horse)
28. Sugar (R. Rush; female miniature poodle)
29. Tippy (I.L. Rush; dog)
30. Violet (S. Yoder; cat)