On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
No, it’s not On The Road, we just cheated and used the form. This is such a lovely set of stories and photos from J R in WV that I can’t wait to read them a second time. It’s looking like there will be two more installments after this, and I couldn’t be happier.
If you think you might like to have your furry family featured here, please send an email to watergirl at balloon-juice.com. If you check out the banner picture for Furry Friends, you’ll see that we’re not limiting this series to cat and dogs!
~WaterGirl
*****
Life with J R and Family: Boomer, Step Aside Clyde, Happy Dawg, Harvey, Ralph, and Rufus
by J R in WV
Some time ago Watergirl asked if I would be interested in writing about and posting pictures of some of the many pets we have had over the years. So, after searching through files of photos and editing some up for public display, here we go. There are so many worthies I’m going to do a first set with some of our beloved pets who have passed, and this is that set. This is my second time through, I lost my first submission to a network error, and so now I’m writing the whole thing in LibreOffice, and will paste in into the submission form when I’m done.
It was a surprising amount of work, and I hate that I lost it all. After 45 years of using computers in my various careers, (in the beginning it was holes in paper tape, each hole was a bit) you would think I had learned my lesson long ago…
We have been rescuing critters, mostly cats and dogs, all our married life, so there have been many dozens, and I’m only going to hit a few I have good photos for. Five, to be specific.
Boomer, Up Close
This photo was taken by a next door neighbor and great friend, it’s about as close to Boomer as you could get, too. Boomer was dropped off at their house as a puppy, with a sister (who never looked anything like Boomer) and after his tail was docked. They asked if we would be interested in adopting him, and we were. But Wife and I both worked long hours at the time, so we asked them to keep him long enough for him to learn about going outside for his business. We all live in the rural wooded hillsides of W Va, and so our dogs (and cats) are free to come and go. So they did, and we did. (His sister was also adopted by a friend a little further away.)
By the time we brought Boomer home, a journey of maybe 400 yards, he was a big, friendly mutt. Everyone who knew Boomer liked Boomer. And he loved most everyone he ever met, with a few notable exceptions. He always wanted to please his folks, which included us and the neighbors who were also free to come and go on our farm.
We were next door (other side of the farm) with a crowd of friends and dogs, when some of the dogs chased the family cat up the hill, Not Boomer, tho!!! Boomer jumped into Wife’s lap to let her know Boomer wasn’t chasing any cats, no way!! He weighed around 90 pounds, but there was no way to tell him he was not a lap dog.
That whole chase thing was recreational both for the dogs and the cat, who knew she could climb a tree, but didn’t care to. And the dogs all knew that actually catching a cat was way more serious than chasing one, with a potential for a bloody nose! That’s a big deal to a dog!
Boomer and our friend
Here you can see that Boomer was a big chunky dog, and that he liked our friend T, who liked Boomer too. Boomer was more athletic than he looked, and his bark was, well booming. Hence the name. And more than one set of sneak thieves were happy to get away from Boomer, just from the noise! This photo is from 2007, I’m not sure when the Boomer closeup nose photo was taken…
Clyde, short for Step Aside Clyde
Clyde came walking down the hill outside our house one December – He was a ball of black fluff with big white snowflakes falling into the leaves on the ground. Probably 8 or 10 weeks old. Looked happy, not scared. I went upstairs and got a little bowl of kibble, and went outside to greet him. He wagged hard and ate some and wagged more. I picked him up, he wagged more, and we went inside.
He was a perfect dog. Well behaved, calm under all circumstances, a leader of dogs and people, an Alpha Dog, affectionate and caring. He attached himself to me, and stuck by my side if I was there. Hence Step Aside, Clyde, he was sometimes a little too close for comfort going through a tight spot or crossing a narrow foot bridge. That first spring when we got him shaved, at first he was embarrassed to lose his fur coat, but it was so hot for him! But then he got used to it.
We had several dogs at the time, Boomer for one example, and they barked and pushed each other around with great joy, as dogs who are friends will.
As you can see from Clyde’s photo, he loved winter, and snow, the more the better. He would stay outside on the back porch, and rub his face in the snow, and roll in it, and let it stack up on him. It wouldn’t melt on his back, his fur was that thick. He would spend the night outside, and in the morning there would be a mound on the back porch, with a tiny hole where he breathed, and you could see two shiny black eyes peering out of the snow pile. Then he would push his way out, and come in for company in the morning.
When he was 5 or 6 or so, he lost the use of his back legs, and our local Vet couldn’t see anything on traditional X-rays. So they recommended we take him to a Vet Hospital in Columbus, OH, which had more resources.
Wife was off with him in the other front seat wit his charts…
They had an interesting agreement with a Children’s Hospital, there were two paths of patients going into the MRI, one for kids and one for furry kids, that crossed at the MRI and then separated again. That showed that Clyde had adhesions to his spinal cord, probably from a falling injury.
Early the next morning a gifted young neurosurgeon operated on Clyde’s spine, to remove the adhesions, and soon they called Wife to come and get him, as he was a “difficult” patient in their kennel. And when Wife showed up, he really started to howl. She brought him home with equipment to help him rehab. A big wide strap to pass under his rear so I could hold him up while his front legs worked and his hind legs did not. And after just a few weeks, those hind legs started moving again.
It took a while, but before too long Clyde was as mobile as your average dog, back running the ridges behind our house. Of course it was too good to last forever. One day Clyde didn’t come home from the ridge. And there are literally miles of rock cliffs and huge twisty trees from the winds on the ridge tops out there. Some months later one of the other dogs brought home a small skull – it was Clyde’s, I recognized the chip on his fang. I was glad to have it, actually. An odd keepsake from an odd dog who I loved very much.
It is hard to type when you have trouble seeing…
Happy Dawg
We were gifted with Happy Dawg by one of the Vets at the clinic we have been taking pets to since the 1970s. Happy was “stolen” aka rescued from a backyard chain at 3 am where she was abused for barking, by another client of the clinic. She had wounds on her back from being beaten and a ferocious case of Heartworms, and spent 9 months under the Doctor’s care before we asked about available adoptions. She barked a lot in the kennel, as well on walks every day around the block, but no one cared any more.
We brought her home, no fees just take care of her and love her. She was so happy to learn to climb the rocks and hunt chipmunks from the other dogs. You can see from her photo that she was really happy. Even when we took back to the Vet Hospital, she was happy to see the Vets and techs who cared for her. Once a neighbor dog (somewhat nuts, eventually was put down for erratic and violent behavior) wounded her, and I took her to the ER Vet clinic. She was happy there too, the smells meant they were going to take care of her.
The photo was taken September, 2018. Not long after that, she became listless and I took her back to the ER clinic, where they diagnosed her with a small abdominal tumor, which was bleeding out. I was lucky to be able to spend an hour or more with her lying on my lap… They weren’t busy, and were quite compassionate. We will always miss her, too. She was so happy, Happy Dawg was.
Harvey
Harvey’s photo is from 2010. Harvey was an alley cat from the West Side of Charleston, and a co-worker had been feeding him. Maybe the smallest cat we ever have had, he became as affectionate as any cat I’ve ever known. Gretchen told me her landlady was going to call animal control on him, because he was playing with landlady’s cat, and she thought it was too violent, all that hissing and chasing. So I visited her small apartment behind the landlady’s house, and she fed him a little bit, and then dropped him into a cardboard box. You should have heard that howl of betrayal~!!!
When I brought the little orange cat home and opened the box in the entry way, he looked around and dove down the steps into the basement. We didn’t see him for weeks, but the food was going away, and the litter box was being used, so we knew he was still down there. Then one day I saw just the tiny bit of his head, and two eyes, scanning for danger! Before long he was eating with the rest of the family.
Orange cats, and white cats with red or orange spots, are typically very friendly. Harvey was like that. The name is from the magical giant rabbit ( a pooka?) in the Jimmy Stewart film, named Harvey. No one else could see him but Jimmy, and no one but me could see Harvey the cat at first.
He had a great life in and around our house. Bugs and lizards to chase and catch, other cats to swear at loudly, spitting and hissing and then cuddling up together. Late at night after he got old he would sneak into bed and lie against my head to stay warm – not the only cat to do that, either.
Rufus, master of all he surveyed.
There is some history here. Back in the mid 1970s we lived in a small bungalow in Beckley, and we had a repairman come to work on the washing machine, not for the first time. So we left the door unlocked for him to do his work. When we got home, we had a new cat, a really big white and orange spotted cat, who looked at you and said “Ralph”! The repairman said “Well, he acted like he lived there!” and so he didn’t even try to keep him out.
So we named him Ralph, and he stayed through a move to Charleston, and then out to the farm, where he ruled the roost. Ralph was amazing, fought with a fox to protect the chickens, ate a whole rabbit, only left some fur and the tail. If you don’t think THAT upset his digestion, think again! After Ralph died at the foot of the steps in the old Jenny Lind farmhouse, some months later I stopped for gas on my way to work, and a big young tomcat, white with orange spots, walked out and rubbed against my ankles. I was dumfounded!!
I asked inside the filling station / hardware shop if he belonged to anyone in the neighborhood, and they said, no, he just showed up the other day. So I took off for work, and stopped and went back for the young tom you see here. The reincarnation of Ralph, we named him Rufus for the red spots…
Rufus was very like Ralph in mood and behavior, not quite as big, but just as self assured, he was affectionate and loving. Would walk around the farm with us, and the dogs. Was a great cat in all regards. At one point he began sitting in a chair at the dinner table, very politely. And we would give him a tiny slice of whatever meaty thing we were having. In the end, when we had neighbors over for dinner, we would set a place for Rufus, a little saucer at his chair. And the people eating on either side of him would share tiny bits of the entree with him, and he would purr like low thunder on the horizon and politely nibble at his share.
Many years later, when he was nearly 20, he would sleep against my head. Once he was gone Harvey took his place, trying to stay warm… and we have central HVAC, it wasn’t that it was cold, it was that they were 95 in cat years! Both these cats had kidney failure while Wife was in hospital with Septic Shock and necrotic pneumonia. I took them on their last ride, and went on the the hospital fo hold Wife’s foot while she was on a vent, and talk to her, loudly, about everything but the cats.
The photo is from July 2010, and Rufus is standing on the beam of a footbridge over the spillway of the frog pond just outside the front door. He never attempted to catch a frog or tadpole, but he was fascinated (all the cats are!) by the motion of the amphibians in the tiny pond. What a grand cat he was!!
All these fur babies were and are wonderful. I hope to file another pet post Friday or Saturday, tomorrow I have to go to town, I have a dentist appointment, and need to get a safety inspection sticker on the car, see the doctor about a prescription, etc, etc, etc.
Covid Roulette, one more time!!!
Just found one more pic of Rufus the I couldn’t resist!
West of the Rockies
Finally a Furry thread! So I go by Moon Tiger and…
Wait. Not that kind of furry?
Nevermind.
JPL
What wonderful stories and your family is awesome.
WaterGirl
Step Aside Clyde has to be one of the great pet names ever. Maybe the greatest.
raven
God, I wasn’t even Raven some nine years ago when I wrote this one.
A Life in Dogs
WaterGirl
@raven: We can always re-up that on one of these furry friend threads, if you like.
Followed by the sequel, of course. :-)
raven
My friend lives in Lousia, KY and worked in Huntington. Her husband was a high school buddy who I even spent some time with in Vietnam in 1969. He died four years ago when he hit a deer riding his motorcycle back from cancer treatment at the Huntington VA. She stayed in Kentucky and is devoted to the The Lawrence County Humane Society Animal Shelter in Louisa.
Seanly
Great stories & wonderful pets – thanks for sharing. My wife & I have had at least 1 dog for all but a few months since December 2001. So many wonderful memories, so much love & life lessons. We’ve had to put 3 of them to sleep. It’s hard to balance so goodbye forever versus sparing them pain and loss of function.
I still love and deeply miss Ginnie (queen of all she surveys), her son Duncan (the sweet prince), and Chula (just w/ us a 2.5 years, but w/ me while my wife got cancer treatments). Now we have Cricket (playful thief) and Maggie (the curmudgeonly sheriff). Maggie tries to corral Cricket but she don’t care.
raven
@WaterGirl: The next one won’t be happy I’m afraid. Bohdi’s mobility is declining, especially on hard surfaces, and Lil Bit just keeps ticking along but she’s not in great shape either.
Just One More Canuck
When I was a teenager, we had a cat who was just a big dumb goofball. My mom named him Socrates, in the vain hope that the name would rub off on him. He would go on vacations – be gone for a week or so, then come strolling down the driveway – did that three or four times, and lived to about 20.
raven
@Seanly: It is such a bitch trying to be aware of how they are feeling. JR and I are a similar age and have been though it many times. Doesn’t it one damn bit easier.
rikyrah
What a beautiful group of animals :)
WaterGirl
@Seanly: If you’re interested, write something up and send photos, and you can tell us all about your beloved pups.
WaterGirl
@raven: Yeah. there were a couple of years where I had those long, skinny-ish rugs with the rubber backing in a trail all through the house, to every door, and into every room. Totally worth it!
J R in WV
@raven:
My grandma was born and raised in Louisa, back when it was a tiny riverboat town. Turn of the last century…The old farmhouse that was the GGrandparents home is gone now, a parking lot for the church next door. And that is hard to handle in an odd way.
My cousin’s dog is from that shelter you mention. The dog saved his life last fall from a house fire at 2 am.
Wife worked out of an office in Huntington for quite a while, and I graduated from Marshall U there. A Small World, isn’t it?
raven
@J R in WV: Yea, he was a safety surveyor for one of the mining companies, he had some hair raising stories about being on the road in those parts. It’s Ricky Skaggs hometown too, right? I was surprised she stayed there when he died but I guess it’s home.
J R in WV
@raven:
I read your old post, and it’s pretty wonderful. Thanks for sharing those stories and reposting that thread!
The critters are pretty wonderful.
raven
@J R in WV: And yours!
This is interesting
”
The bridge from Louisa, in eastern Lawrence County, to Fort Gay, West Virginia, is something of a geographic and architectural oddity. The quarter-mile concrete span spans two forks of the Big Sandy River, connects two states and has a right turn at its halfway point, which connects traffic to the Point Section neighborhood of Louisa.”
J R in WV
@raven:
Yeah, they have a street named Ricky Skaggs Boulevard IIRC.
Haven’t been there in a V long time now. Was there for family reunions as a V young boy. Big old farm house, they had nine kids, so built on to the old house. Had their own gas well, and a hand pump on the kitchen sink.
My cousin and I planned to drive down there, now that will be as soon as the plague winds up a little…
WaterGirl
@raven: It sure seems like there would be some as yet untold stories here:
raven
@WaterGirl: Ralph and Henry Doodle Bug frolicking on Oregon Street in Urbana!
Miss Bianca
@WaterGirl: If I ever have a racehorse (hey, it could happen – I do have a retired one, anyway!), I’m gonna call him Step Aside Clyde. What an awesome moniker.
And awesome photos and stories, J R. Got a little misty myself.
zhena gogolia
Great post. I love that Boomer picture — it’s like an electron microscope picture of his nose!
Mary G
Wonderful stories of wonderful family members, even if it did get awfully dusty in here at points. Agree that JR and Mrs. JR ate champion pet-namers.
@raven: Nine years already! Lil Bit has definitely beaten the odds! I always love that picture with bouncing baby Bohdi and Raven giving you that Look.
Salty Sam
Gawd I love dawg stories…
raven
@Mary G: And two since her “tie-back” surgery. We’re so lucky with both of them.
MagdaInBlack
@Mary G:
Weird how dusty it got here too. Im having 40 + years of pet flashbacks :-)
Miss Bianca
@raven: Ha ha, and embedded in your thread from the past is a J R story about Step Aside Clyde and Boomer (which happens to have been the former barn name of my TB mare, whose Jockey Club name is Boomtiderock. She’s so not a “Boomer”, so she’s Ember now).
My doggoes have always had multiple names, and “Boo” always seems to end up in one or another current one. So Roxy is also Rox-Boo, Wolf Girl, and Princess PowerSave. Watson is Wiggles or Little Man or, yes, Watson-Boo. : )
I was lurking back in the old days of BJ, so I am pretty sure I must have seen this thread in real time.
JeanneT
Nice to see all those lovely critter-companions!
I took my dogger to the vet yesterday for a blood test to see if his cancer is still in remission (he had surgery in 2017). We won’t get the results for a week, which is a long time to keep my fingers crossed. But I am quite sure he’s not showing any signs of hypercalcemia, which would definitely be happening if the cancer came back, so I really do expect a good report.
J R in WV
@JeanneT:
Wishing only the best good news for you and your furr baby!!!!
Sab
My tuxedo guy is whapping my arm right now for more scritches. Four other cats in my household aren’t my problem. My husband has cat charisma. I am not so afflicted. Dogs like me. I have to work on cats.
Litlebritdifrnt
OT but DH got his English Driver’s License recently and today we went out on the road in the car. Initially just around the neighbourhood to get him used to the car. He did well, except for the fact in his effort to drive on the left he was driving perilously close to the parked cars on the side of the road. At one point I thought he was going to take a whole line of wing mirrors off. I was just about crawling across to the driver’s seat. He said “just calm down” as I was biting my nails down to the nubs. Anyway he intends to drive up to the Lake District on Tuesday so we will see how he does.
Yutsano
The only thing I can say here is bark bark woof woof nyan nyan*!
With a beloved hat tip to Mustang Bobby.
*meow in Japanese
WaterGirl
@raven: Fun! I found myself smiling at the pup on the left. :-)
WaterGirl
@Miss Bianca: I DO remember it, and it’s hard to believe that was 9 years ago. Yikes.
Miss Bianca
@Litlebritdifrnt: Oh, dear God. I mean, um…yay? Yay-ish?
Emma
I uwu at the pictures and ;_; at the text… thanks :)
J R in WV
@zhena gogolia:
I dunno how T next door managed to get one with Boomer’s nose so very clean and healthy looking – he’s a farm dog! T and his wife raised Boomer for a couple of months, and we had him after that.
But of course both houses were home to Boomer! Great neighbors! And on both sides of the farm!!
WaterGirl
@J R in WV: I have always loved your stories, and today is no different. Thanks so much for doing this.
We’ll run the next installment of J R’s life with pets next Saturday. :-)
debbie
The boundless love in these threads! ?
raven
@WaterGirl: Ralph, he was the father. I used to go to class and just let him hang on the quad. I’d come out and whistle and they he’d come. We would walk down 6th Street and there was that place that had the ducks. I’d just say “ducks” and he’d charge the fence. God I just looked at google maps and the whole block where Mc Brides, Chins and all that stuff is gone.
Yutsano
@Litlebritdifrnt: Do you want me to send my mother? She mastered English/Irish driving rules almost immediately. So she could probably give your DH a few hints.
And if you’re worried about her making it: my mom might be an Irish citizen. Turns out both my great grandparents were born in Ireland. Finding their birth records will be a challenge but if we can then my paternal grandfather and my mother are Irish. Which would then apply to me as well.
WaterGirl
@raven: I loved the block with the ducks!
I haven’t been to campus in… I don’t know how long. Except for the Illini Union, because that houses the Apple-certified repair place. But that’s it. I wonder if everything we knew is gone?
Mary G
@raven: Does she still eat in her chair?
raven
@WaterGirl: The last time I was there was 9 years or so ago and the change was already intense. It’s no different here, there is no “campustown” but downtown is becoming mostly chain places and high rises and this shit will only hasten with the pandemic. Even our little “Normaltown” is seeing the same thing, one of the hospitals is eating everything.
raven
@Mary G: Oh yea, she shakes her little paws while she eats and Bohdi hovers for dropped kibble. Here she is.
zhena gogolia
@raven:
Darling baby!
raven
@WaterGirl: The google map is from the fall because the trees are turning in front of the Union.
opiejeanne
@West of the Rockies: Speaking of that kind of furry, “The Fandom” on YouTube is getting really good reviews. Three guys made it on practically no budget and it shows in a couple of places, but it’s not terrible. One remark, Sam Conway aka Uncle Kage, is every bit the ass he seems at first blush; he does get credit for expanding the convention scene but he is not the innocent he portrays when he claims he didn’t know about the misbehavior (putting it mildly) that the media was eager to publicize.
My son is not in this movie but I know a couple of the principals.
There is a brief mention but no explanation of why the original convention folded after 10 years, but after the betrayal by the guy who volunteered to run it and then declared that it was ended and no one could use the name ConFurEnce because he had control of the name, they just changed the name and the original guys and their friends picked up the pieces. I think it was called FurTher ConFusion. I think the idiot NeoNazi furries caused it and at least one other to shut down rather than allow them to disrupt everyone’s fun. Funny thing, they don’t show them in their fur suits but they are almost all dressed as wolves.
opiejeanne
@Just One More Canuck: Vacations, ha! My grandma had a cat like that who went on “vacations”. He wasn’t fixed, and we all knew he was out looking for the ladies.
opiejeanne
@J R in WV: Thanks for sharing your furry buddies with us. Nice stories, great photos, and you’re such a great guy for rescuing them..
opiejeanne
@Litlebritdifrnt: That’s how it was when we drove in Englandon that one trip. And Ireland. Those narrow roads between two ancient stone walls and two ditches had both of us screaming whenever we saw a car coming the other direction, me because I was looking down into the ditch and he because, damn that other car came close.
WaterGirl
@raven: I see that your guys don’t chew their food, either.
NotMax
@opiejeanne
Reminded of the tale of Queenie.
“Always on a Tuesday.”
;)
Mary G
OT
West of the Rockies
@opiejeanne:
NeoNazi furries?!? Now that’s a curious psychological profile…
eclare
What great stories and pictures from JR and Raven! Definitely needed.
satby
@J R in WV: You have the best stories J R!
Just One More Canuck
@opiejeanne: Socrates was fixed – he just was an adventurous cat
prostratedragon
Played by Reginald R. Robinson:
MazeDancer
Spectacular pets and pics. Such splendid stories.
opiejeanne
@West of the Rockies: In the documentary I mentioned, you can see the beginnings of an alt-right movement within the fandom. It’s mainly led by a very rigid young man who is part of a panel decreeing that the conventions must be as pure as Ivory soap, only purer. That particular person was swinging far to the right before W was elected, then lost his shit because W was so awful. He managed to alienate people on both sides of the aisle and now lives in near-seclusion in Maine, about as far from California as possible and still be in the US.
J R in WV
I’m glad so many Jackals enjoyed this photo set and historic stories. Of course I’ve left out a couple of dozen critters with stories just as interesting over the past 45 years.
I grew up with my grandmother’s Great Dane Jerry, followed by her Boxer Ginger, along with our own dogs.
Thanks to Watergirl for encouraging me to put these together! She was a huge help in every way…
susanna
LOVE these tales of tails from both you and Raven. More!
seefleur
Thanks for this – all of you and your fur-footed family members. Just had a “discussion” with my spouse about BLM etc., and needed this to decompress (I’m naturalized Asian citizenship, he’s uber-Caucasian from Illinois – and he’s still working on learning after 40+ years of being with me).