COPPERHEADS

Photo:  Centers for Disease Control and PreventionI am sorry to say that I have not really been doing my duty to write about snakes during the Year of the Snake, but now I will start making up for that.  And today I will write about an American snake that is called the Copperhead.  You can find this snake mostly in the eastern and southern parts of the country, including in Missouri, where I live.  Except that I hope I never find...

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SALLIE: A CIVIL WAR DOG

Sallie joined up at a very young age.  She was only four weeks old when she was given as a gift to 1st Lieutenant William R. Terry of the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.  She grew up among the soldiers, and they were happy to have a puppy around to take their minds off being homesick and scared.  Sallie was a brindle bull terrier, and she was named after a beautiful girl who lived near the camp.The only known photo of Sallie,from...

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MY NEW DOGGY SISTER!

You'll never believe what Mom brought home for me and Mel yesterday -- a brand-new doggy sister!  Her name is Agnes, and she is 7 and a half years old.  She is a Maltese, so she is kind of small and white and hairy.  Mom found her on Petfinder.  Mom was mostly looking for something like a long-haired chihuahua or a papillion or maybe a cairn terrier.  But then she decided to apply for Agnes.The group that Agnes came from...

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OCICATS

Here's how to make an Ocicat:  breed an Abyssinian to a Siamese, and then after the kittens grow up, breed them to another Siamese.  The second generation will have at least one spotted kitten, and that is an Ocicat. Anyway, that's how it happened in 1964 with Virginia Daly of Berkley, Michigan.  But she wasn't trying to make an Ocicat.  She was trying to make a Siamese cat with Abyssinian points, and she was very surprised when...

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MOM'S AUNT WINNIE

Mom used to have an aunt named Winnie, and she was born exactly 100 years ago today.  I thought it might be a good idea to have a party to celebrate this event, and we could serve cake and ice cream and dog treats.  But Mom said that Aunt Winnie had been dead for 13 years, so there was really not much point in having a party that she couldn't come to.Aunt Winnie was the sister of Mom's dad, whose name was Claude.  They were born near...

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MOM'S NEW PLANTS

Ever since she started working at the garden center, Mom keeps buying plants.  I think this is a bad thing to do because if you ask me, the money should be spent on dog food and dog treats instead.  But of course, Mom just ignores my opinion and does whatever she wants to do.  I have no control over her at all.Anyway, since she has these new plants, I thought maybe I would write about them in my blog because I don't really have anything...

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OUCH!

Well, like Mom told you, I had to have important, majorly expensive surgery, and now I have a very sore tummy.  I don't recommend that people or dogs or cats have their stomaches cut open because it hurts a whole bunch afterwards.  Mom says it will stop hurting after a while, and that I will heal up and be just like new again, but I think she may be lying to me.  In the meantime, she is giving me pain meds, and that is good.At first,...

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