{"id":609,"date":"2016-08-21T17:44:18","date_gmt":"2016-08-21T22:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?p=609"},"modified":"2016-08-21T17:44:18","modified_gmt":"2016-08-21T22:44:18","slug":"the-day-the-dogs-were-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?p=609","title":{"rendered":"The Day The Dogs Were Shot"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Note: \u00a0I wrote this in 1972 in Georgetown, Texas. \u00a0It is also on this website under “Butch The One Of A Kind Dog.” \u00a0 It was published on another blog site, which I no longer have, in 1914.)<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t sleep for trying to think of answers to the questions that came today and that will come again tomorrow.\u00a0 The farmer shot their dog.\u00a0 She is gone.\u00a0 Nothing will bring her back.\u00a0 They have accepted that fact.\u00a0 But the whys will come again tomorrow as they try to reconcile the facts with the man\u2019s actions and words.<\/p>\n

They went looking for her this morning when their other dog (Butch) came home alone with a bullet wound.\u00a0 They were soon back, hurt, sad and angry.\u00a0 Without a word the younger boy got on his bike and rode around and around the block to have time to control the tears.\u00a0 The older boy immediately released his anger verbally.<\/p>\n

Did the man really use those words and talk to them so ugly?\u00a0 I thought perhaps I was hearing an adolescent outburst of emotion.\u00a0 When the younger boy got off his bike, I asked to be told what the man said.<\/p>\n

Yes, he was ugly to them.\u00a0 He was angry and let them know it.\u00a0 He said she (Princess) deserved to die because she was running on his land.\u00a0 Then he ordered them to get of his land.<\/p>\n

\u201cMom, he said damn and all those other bad words to us.\u00a0 He probably never had a dog when he was a little boy and hates dogs now.\u201d\u00a0 Then he asked, \u201cCan a dog kill a cow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, but a dog can chase a cow and cause it to get hurt.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid daddy ever shoot a dog for chasing cows when we had cows?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, we never had any trouble with dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n

I think back to my childhood and remember that packs of stray dogs some times bothered the baby calves.\u00a0 But our dog and the mother cows usually took care of the situation.\u00a0 When my father took out the gun it was to shoot a skunk in the chicken house or a rattlesnake.\u00a0 This was a necessity to him and he never hunted wild animals for sport.<\/p>\n

The children reminded me of a time last spring before we moved when we lived in the country.\u00a0 A dog kept being a nuisance at night.\u00a0 Princess and Butch would chase him off and he would promptly return.\u00a0 After several nights of turned over trash, holes around the chicken pen fence and barking dogs, their Dad tried to catch the dog.\u00a0 The dog was the faster runner.\u00a0 The next night he sprayed buck shot in the dog\u2019s direction.\u00a0 That didn\u2019t work either.\u00a0 Finally one night the dog came early.\u00a0 Their Dad quietly followed him home and talked to his owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy didn\u2019t that man tell us if he saw her chasing his cows?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know?\u201d<\/p>\n

Do I tell I tell them that maybe the man thought most people would not do anything about it?\u00a0 Do I think that most people would do anything about it?\u00a0 I only know what we would have done.<\/p>\n

They remember that we kept our dogs on a stake in the yard for over a week when we moved into the new house, and we planned for a fence to go up before we released them.\u00a0 They know their Dad would have staked her again and put up a temporary fence immediately had the man talked to us.<\/p>\n

After a few days in the new neighborhood we met our neighbors.\u00a0 Almost without exception they had a dog.\u00a0 Our small subdivision is separated from the main part of the small town by open spaces and an interstate highway.\u00a0 The neighbors all planned for fences too, but as long as the dogs were not bothering anyone, we agreed to try to keep them on our street.\u00a0 So our dogs were let free with the others.\u00a0 There are no alleys and no trash cans to be turned over, no flower beds to dig in, so we made a mutual agreement about our animals.<\/p>\n

I would sometimes see dogs on the next street over, but our dogs were not interested in things that direction.\u00a0 Our back yard adjoined pasture land and that was like home to them.\u00a0 They were country dogs.\u00a0 They had a morning ritual of a run in the open spaces before we moved.\u00a0 The timing was almost always the same: some time between 8:30 and 10:00 AM.\u00a0 They would run through the citrus groves and along a canal in the Rio Grande Valley where we lived.\u00a0 They would return hot, tired, and wet from the dew on the tall grass. They did not leave again during the day or night.\u00a0 They were good watch dogs and patrolled the perimeter of our yard at night.<\/p>\n

I had watched them closely here and they seemed to be following the same pattern.\u00a0 I had talked to my husband about this and we felt they were safer exploring the pasture than going onto the other streets.\u00a0 We erroneously assumed there was nothing they could bother back there.<\/p>\n

The man told my husband that someone had seen some dogs chasing his calves.\u00a0 He had come to check them this morning and something had chased some baby calves through a fence.\u00a0 He was angry and he shot the first dogs that he saw.\u00a0 It was 9:30 AM when Butch ran home alone.\u00a0 No, the man had never seen Princess before.\u00a0 But we can never prove that she had never chased his calves.<\/p>\n

There will be more discussion of this with the dawn of the new day.<\/p>\n

ADDENDUM<\/p>\n

Butch was more traumatized than hurt.\u00a0 The bullet entered his shoulder and exited just under the skin on the other side.\u00a0 The bleeding was quickly stopped.\u00a0 If the bullet had entered higher or lower it would probably have been fatal.<\/p>\n

When things quieted down, Ken took the boys in the pickup and went around the pasture until he found the gate.\u00a0 He went in.\u00a0 The man was still there and they talked.\u00a0 Ken just described the conversation as \u201cdirect.\u201d\u00a0 They got Princess\u2019 body and buried her in the back yard.<\/p>\n

There was quite a reaction among the neighbors.\u00a0 It was very negative and one of the men jokingly made a suggestion for retaliation which I won\u2019t write here, but it had to do with barbecued beef.\u00a0 They were upset also.<\/p>\n

We were in the process of buying some property west of town.\u00a0 We had met some of the adjacent landowners.\u00a0 Most of them had been on the same property and in Williamson County for many years.\u00a0 Ken told one of them about the dog incident.\u00a0 He knew the man who shot Princess and told Ken that the man did not own the land but only had it leased.\u00a0 Then he told Ken that he was surprised that he had confronted him.\u00a0 He said, \u201cKen he doesn\u2019t just shoot dogs.\u00a0 He just got out of prison for shooting a man.\u201d<\/p>\n

We never saw the man again and Butch\u2019s morning runs stopped.<\/p>\n

Soon the next street had lots staked. \u00a0The subdivision began the northward march toward the Georgetown airport. \u00a0Before long we had neighbors behind us, and we had fenced yards.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Note:  I wrote this in 1972 in Georgetown, Texas.  It is also on this website under “Butch The One Of A Kind Dog.”   It was published on another blog site, which I no longer have, in 1914.) I can’t sleep for trying to think of answers to the questions that came today and that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[185],"class_list":["post-609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1972-to-1987","tag-childrens-pet-is-shot"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Day The Dogs Were Shot - Loose Strings From The Past<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Children's pet is shot and man tells them she deserved to be shot.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?p=609\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Day The Dogs Were Shot - Loose Strings From The Past\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Children's pet is shot and man tells them she deserved to be shot.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?p=609\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Loose Strings From The Past\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-21T22:44:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Charlcyann\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Facebook \/ Twitter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Charlcyann\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\\\/?p=609#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\\\/?p=609\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Charlcyann\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b6883dc5d89ffbbb2b15c172811bc849\"},\"headline\":\"The Day The Dogs Were Shot\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-21T22:44:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\\\/?p=609\"},\"wordCount\":1227,\"commentCount\":0,\"keywords\":[\"children's pet is shot\"],\"articleSection\":[\"1972 to 1987\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\\\/?p=609#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\\\/?p=609\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\\\/?p=609\",\"name\":\"The Day The Dogs Were Shot - Loose Strings From The Past\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-21T22:44:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b6883dc5d89ffbbb2b15c172811bc849\"},\"description\":\"Children's pet is shot and man tells them she deserved to be shot.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\\\/?p=609#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\\\/?p=609\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\\\/?p=609#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Day The Dogs Were Shot\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Loose Strings From The Past\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b6883dc5d89ffbbb2b15c172811bc849\",\"name\":\"Charlcyann\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1211901ffa2d73434e1d5ffd4eb234cb429ea1662daf1ab2ac8b2de3f21d1964?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1211901ffa2d73434e1d5ffd4eb234cb429ea1662daf1ab2ac8b2de3f21d1964?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1211901ffa2d73434e1d5ffd4eb234cb429ea1662daf1ab2ac8b2de3f21d1964?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Charlcyann\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/Facebook \\\/ Twitter\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Day The Dogs Were Shot - Loose Strings From The Past","description":"Children's pet is shot and man tells them she deserved to be shot.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?p=609","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Day The Dogs Were Shot - Loose Strings From The Past","og_description":"Children's pet is shot and man tells them she deserved to be shot.","og_url":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?p=609","og_site_name":"Loose Strings From The Past","article_published_time":"2016-08-21T22:44:18+00:00","author":"Charlcyann","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Facebook \/ Twitter","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Charlcyann","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?p=609#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?p=609"},"author":{"name":"Charlcyann","@id":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b6883dc5d89ffbbb2b15c172811bc849"},"headline":"The Day The Dogs Were Shot","datePublished":"2016-08-21T22:44:18+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?p=609"},"wordCount":1227,"commentCount":0,"keywords":["children's pet is shot"],"articleSection":["1972 to 1987"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?p=609#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?p=609","url":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?p=609","name":"The Day The Dogs Were Shot - Loose Strings From The Past","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-08-21T22:44:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b6883dc5d89ffbbb2b15c172811bc849"},"description":"Children's pet is shot and man tells them she deserved to be shot.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?p=609#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?p=609"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?p=609#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Day The Dogs Were Shot"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/","name":"Loose Strings From The Past","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b6883dc5d89ffbbb2b15c172811bc849","name":"Charlcyann","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1211901ffa2d73434e1d5ffd4eb234cb429ea1662daf1ab2ac8b2de3f21d1964?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1211901ffa2d73434e1d5ffd4eb234cb429ea1662daf1ab2ac8b2de3f21d1964?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1211901ffa2d73434e1d5ffd4eb234cb429ea1662daf1ab2ac8b2de3f21d1964?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Charlcyann"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/Facebook \/ Twitter"],"url":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":610,"href":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions\/610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}