When my girls were growing up in the city, we had many dogs throughout the years. One of the special ones was a dachshund named Brownie. He was very lovable and fun to be around. I had a shawl on the couch that my mother had knit, and Brownie would wait until we were out of that room, jump up and drag the shawl onto the floor where he would make a little nest for himself. When we found out, we would take the shawl away from him, shake out the dog hairs and put it back on the couch. This went on day after day and no one seemed to mind that it never ended.

Brownie had a habit of eating the hamsters belonging to the little girl across the street. She would come over to our house, all excited, to show us her new pet she was carrying in a wire cage. Brownie would stand underneath the cage, waiting for one of the hamster’s appendages to stick through the wire. He would then grab it, pull it through the hole in the wire and eat it. That happened several times and the little girl never seemed to learn that it was a bad idea to come to our house with her hamsters. That same little girl always had a very runny nose. She would come over and stand on our front porch, pressing her face against our window and watch us while we ate dinner, waiting for Teri or Cindy to come out and play. Our front window was a mess! What with the little girl on the outside and our dogs on the inside, it was hard to see the outside world anymore.

When Teri was 8 years old, The Convenient Food Mart up the street had a contest. It was for the best-dressed dog entered by a boy and a girl. Two sting ray bikes would be presented – one to the winning boy and one to the winning girl. We were all very excited and I started right away making a costume for Brownie. I decided on a clown suit. I’ll never know how I did it, but I did – even the hat. The whole family went up and watched the contest. We were so excited and happy for Teri when she won the bike! Brownie was even excited because I think he came home and ate another hamster to celebrate! Teri is in the above picture with the owner of the store and Brownie . . . and the sting ray.