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FRISKIE |
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| Friske was one of the pets that I had when I was young. I say that I had her
as a pet, however, she was in fact, a family pet. How we got her and where she came from is long forgotten, but
she was one of the two German Shepherds that I remember having when I was a boy. I think that this dog was unique
and very special. She was a black and brown German Shepherd as opposed to the gray variety. She was a bit slimmer that most of that breed that I have seen. That is not the only thing that set her apart from the others. She was more playful and active than the common variety of big dogs. She loved to run and play with whomever she could get to play with her. My mother would go next door to visit with my Aunt on a daily basis. The walk from our house to Aunt Edna's was about 300 feet and a path showed that there was a regular routine of going to and from her house. Mother was a bit plump and, as she walked along that path, her behind would jiggle just a little bit. It was that movement taht Friskie began to notice and it attracted her. Whenever Mother would walk along that path, Friskie would be right behind her, following her to the house next door. It became a regular event to see mother and Friskie walking, one behind the other. Friskie loved to play and to invite play. She would run to you and then run away, in attempts to get you to react and play with her. In a way she was a perennial puppy and acted the part. One day Mother said that Friskie had come up behind her and had nipped her on her bottom. She had taken the action to mean that Friskie wanted to play and this was her way of getting Mother's attention. She laughed about the incident and was not alarmed by the action. So it was that it became a habit of Friskie to try to sneak up on my Mother and try to pinch her backside as she walked over to my Aunt's house. It was a game that Mother and Friskie played. Mother would watch for Friskie to sneak up behind her and just before the dog got there, Mother would turn and shoo her away. To Friskie this was a great game and a way to get attention. This game when on for a full year and it was always the same. Friskie would stalk mother and mother would turn on the dog and shoo her away. Then Friskie would run in circles and through the yard in a playful way. All of this was fine as long as it was Mother that Friskie played with. Friskie didn't seem to be in interested in any one else that passed by. It was just Mother and that little jiggle that had attracted her. One day during the early summer, I was in the garden hoeing the vegetables. It was a hot day and I happened to notice a neighbor lady by the name of Grigsby coming up the street. She was on her way to visit the Eldridges who lived next door to us. Mrs. Grigsby was a short plump lady in her fifties. She was known to everyone as a gossip and a bit of a trouble maker. In short, not many of us kids like her for the way that she would run us off when we came around her home. She had no children, that I knew of, and that was probably the reason taht she did not like to have the neighborhood children around her house. Like my Mother, she had bountiful hips and due to the heat, she was not wearing a corset. The result was that as she walked she had a similar jiggle to her rump that my mother had. I stopped my work for a moment and shouted a "Hello" to her as she was walking by. I got no response out of her. She simply had ignored my greeting to her. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw Friskie coming up behind Mrs. Grigsby. Friskie was stalking the oblivious target and like an animal on a hunt, she would run in short spurts in a crouched position. Silently and with considerable speed she closed in on the object of her attention. Suddenly, with a burst of speed, Friskie was directly behind Mrs. Grigsby and with her front teeth she pinched the fleshy bun of Mrs. Grigsby's ass. I watched the whole thing in amazement and with a bit of glee. Mrs. Grigsby had ignored my greeting and I had failed to call off the dog. The nip was just a pinch, nothing more. It was the same kind of nip that Friskie had given, or tried to give, my mother for many a morning as she went to visit my Aunt. Mrs. Grigsby let out a yell that could be heard to the far corners of the neighborhood. You would have though that she had been shot. Friskie was startled and ran for the underside of the front porch. The scream had scared her. Mrs. Grigsby ran to the front door of the house, all of teh time screaming that she had been bitten by a vicious dog. My Mother came to the porch and listened as Mrs. Grigsby hollered adn shouted about the mean and dangerous dog that we had. She even pulled up her dress to show Mother where the bite had been made. There was hardly any evidence of the nip. It had been made as a playful gesture and not in a vicious manner. It took my mother the good part of an hour to get Mrs. Grigsby to calm down and listen to reason. The threats of calling the police and the dog catcher were finally put down adn the incident was forgiven. From that day forward, Mrs. Grigsby walked by our house with a great deal more attention to what was going on around her. She never suffered from the playfulness of Friskie again. To this day I can see plainly the dog stalking the target and with a final lunge, nipping that bottom. It was all so quick and surprising to all that observed it. I loved it. |
Copyright © 1994, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008 by Glen Stinson & Mark Stinson