The beginning ~ Autumn

The beginning, that's the start right? I grew up on a farm, it seemed all animals always came to me, my horse trusted me to no end, my pony did what ever I asked her to do even while she was pregnant.  I always say I would rather deal with a animal than a person, I would rather clean out a stall the shovel it with a person. 

I'm married 28 years, Gary, my DH of mine is a animal person just like me, no I think worse and everyone thinks its ME.  I remind them it's not, but somehow they don't believe me.

"Our" first animal, trust me I can't go way back to when I had my first animal, that would be for a book version of me and my zoo.  So our first animal together was Autumn, she was a red doberman, beautiful dog we always said she was a human in a dog suit.  We had gotten her for my birthday, that dog was our first child.  The things she would do, she loved to go for a "R" you could never say the word in front of her, she know, Ride, going for a ride in the truck.  She also loved "M", yes McDonald's she got a cheeseburger happy meal, yes I got the toy! We only went during good toy times !  She loved Carvel too and lets not speak of the bank!  Her long nose fit WELL in the tub of the drive up and knew what came out of those tubes.  She loved to drive down the road with her head on my shoulder as I drove.  She broke her leg when she was 6 months old, she learned how to work that cast well. 

She loved to go in the garden and you would see the corn stalks moving and out would come Autumn with a tomato in her mouth.  We think she was a German Italian, her mouth would water when we ate Italian food.
She really didn't like when I got gas in the truck, but I had to try and explain that man outside the window will let us drive around more if you let him do his job, she didn't get it but let him fill the truck.

She loved to play 'bucket' with Gary, we had a 5 gal pain bucket and she would fetch it, but just imagine this, a doberman, running around the back yard with a bucket in her mouth, oh did I mention she was looking on the INSIDE of the bucket, yes she had the bucket up so she was looking inside the bucket while she ran, don't worry we didn't let her run into the tree. 

We had gotten her two kittens to keep her company while I was at work, that was Kookie and Tilly, now those two are another story.  Tilly and Kookie were 6 weeks old when we got them, so they thought Autumn was their Mom, I know, dog / cat, you tell them. They would nurse on her neck, I guess Autumn liked the neck message the kittens gave her.  Kookie was not with us long, so Bandit came into our life. 

Bandit and Autumn were best of pals, Bandit and Autumn would play hide and seek.  Now just imagine a 80 pound dog running with a 5 pound cat behind her then they reach the living room, turn around and it would be the cat and the dog, it was a sight.

Autumn was with us for 12 years I am sure Bandit and Autumn are playing their never ending game of hide and seek.

Now the next set of animals at the zoo was Tilly and Bandit, their story next.