House Pets for Jan 11

Hayter for January 11, 2026

“A marriage split on the issue of house pets”

  

            This evening Kay asked me what the topic of my article was going to be. When I told that my deadline wasn’t until tomorrow evening, she said, “Well, what are you going to write about tomorrow?”

            She doesn’t generally ask me about my topics, so I figured she was after something. I asked her what I should write about and she said, “Dogs.” I thought interesting, because Kay knows that I never had a dog. It’s not that I don’t like dogs, it’s just that Mom wouldn’t let us get one.

            In fact, the only pets she ever allowed into the house were goldfish. Larry, my oldest brother, bought a couple of goldfish when he was still in high school. I don’t know why. I don’t even think he knew why. But low and behold, one day he brought home two goldfish and fish bowl.

Larry named the fish Harry and Larry. He would have to use a magic marker on one of them to tell them apart. He bought fish food, but nothing else. The fish were in a half gallon jar of water that had nothing for the fish to look at. I have never felt more sorry for any creatures in my life. The only thing they could see were people watching TV.

As fate would have it, one of the fishes soon died, so Larry flushed it down the toilet. He decided it was Harry. It didn’t matter, because the Larry fish, died that night. My brother flushed his name-sake down the toilet, assuming that he would soon meet Harry in the afterlife.

Larry didn’t buy any more goldfish, so Mom made a flowerpot out of the fish home. It looked much better with flowers in it than tiny orange fish. Anyway, that was the story I told Kay. I was the only one who teared up.

When I finished the story, Kay said, “Are you through?” I thought the comment was somewhat rude. She went on to say that I should write about dogs. I didn’t think dog news would be as interesting as the goldfish, but I told her that I’d write about the different dog friends she had over the years.

Her family’s first dog was a black and white hairy dog, named Sissy. I assume it was a girl. Kay and her two brothers had Sissy at the time we started dating… Kay and I, not Sissy and me. I mentioned the Hayters were dogless, didn’t I?

I liked Sissy, because she was a backyard dog. She didn’t give two hoots for me. She liked Kay’s family… her dad the most. He worked somewhere on the Houston Ship Channel. I never knew if he parked the ships or kept records on what they carried. I do know that he was invited to come aboard some of the ships and eat with the captain and crew. Uncle Ray didn’t drink, but the captain generally gave him a bottle or three of booze. He held onto the bottles until Christmas, and then gave them away as gifts to some of the workers on the Ship Channel.

Back to Sissy, that dog loved Uncle Ray. When  he pulled into the driveway after work, the dog always knew sound of the car, and would start barking immediately. Kay told me that as soon as her Dad came into the house, he would hide in a closet or bathtub or behind a curtain. When he was well hidden, Kay would open the back door and let Sissy in.

It never took Sissy much time to find her Dad. She’d just bark up a storm. I liked that story. In fact, I liked every story told about Kay’s Dad. I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I called him Uncle Ray. I doubt I’ll ever stop missing that man.

Of course, I got over Sissy. In fact, I held up well during the passing of all of Kay’s family’s dogs. One was a hairy chihuahua named Bounce-a-lot. I think you can determine the reason for the name. Had the dog barked a lot, the name would’ve probably been changed.

Bounce-a-lot went on a lot of trips with the family. I got to go along on a few myself. Uncle Ray and I would take turns driving. I really enjoyed those trips. And I loved the family. Tracy, the younger of the two brothers died of COVID a few years back. There are only two family members left. Kay and her brother Michael, who lives in Austin with his wife Karen.

The only sister in the family was Kay, and she lives with me in Conroe. We love each other dearly, but Kay promised that she would wait until I passed away before she got herself a dog. She said she wanted purse-sized dog. I asked her not to name it after me. She assured me that she has no problem with that.

end

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