I wanted to dedicate this post to dogs that we grew up with.
The first dog I remember is Gyp (short for Gypsie). My only memories of Gyp are being terrified of him. Also I remember hearing lots of stories about Gyp growing up, but I will let those who experienced them first hand share those stories.
Tarver was an Irish Setter who could jump on his hind legs on the trampoline while holding a person's hands with his front paws. Cocoa was a German Shorthair who I believe is credited with helping Gyp to eat the deer that Andy Fox shot and left at our house to be butchered. I don't remember much else about them. Reno was a black lab who disappeared when we were on vacation. We used to sleep outside on the trampoline and at night he would jump up onto the trampoline and find you in the dark. Because he was pitch-black, it was hard to see him until he was right in your face.
Zeke was a Golden Labrador. When we went duck hunting to Farmington Bay, he turned out to be such a lousy retriever that the boys left him out in the bay. Dad had to trudge back into the swamp and find the dog to take him home. He ended up nearly killing Healy's dog and we had to get rid of him. We gave him to the school bus driver who took him to his house in Lehi in the back of his truck. Zeke memorized the way and the next morning we found him on the front porch. He had run home from Lehi. We ended up giving him to an ironworker friend of Dad's in Goshen and had to drive him there in the motorhome so he couldn't memorize the road.
Rambo was a Golden Lab/Retriever mix. He had an intense hatred for the UPS man and would crouch in the grass when he heard the UPS truck going by and then charge the poor guy when he got out of the truck. Our UPS deliveries slowed to a trickle for some time only to be resumed after Rambo died. Rambo used to jump up on the window sill and look in the living room window to watch TV with us. When Dad started cutting the roast on Sunday with an electric knife, Rambo would whine and howl in anticipation, knowing he was getting the scraps.
One of our best dog stories came from a stray labrador that followed me home from school. No one told Dad when he came home from work that we had taken on a stray dog. He woke up early in the morning to drive to Delta for work. It was still dark when he strode across the lawn on the brisk summer morning. The dog ran across the lawn silently and greeted Dad by sticking his cold wet nose between Dad's legs. The greeting nearly launched Dad across the street. Needless to say, we had a stern talking to when he returned from work.
If anyone has any other stories or pictures of our dogs, please feel free to add.
3 comments:
Jeff,
I was stunned initially when you had only one line about Gyp on this blog. Then as I read on, I realized that Gyp died when I was maybe in 9th grade, which explains why you wouldn't remember what a funny dog he truly was. The older McGhie siblings will remember that he was the official mascot of the 4H club dressed in the 4H shirt with a cowboy hat tied on sometimes and he weaved in and out of every parade we rode in during Alpine Days and even Steel Days in A.F.
I remember when we would haul hay in the old dodge truck that he would keep climbing up the hay as we stacked it and always ride on top when we delivered it. Once dad hit the brakes a little too hard and next thing we hear is the screeching of Gyp's claws on the roof of the cab then the windshield, then the hood as he slid all the way off the truck. No harm done to Gyp though...he was just fine.
The other funny memory was when he would go crazy when we were ready to go hunting. He would whine and bark and jump in and out of the truck and generally go completely crazy until we started hunting. And what an amazing hunting dog he was!
Last memory...getting into an argument with Todd and Kelly Healey and telling Todd I would sick Gyp on him if he didn't do what I said. He laughed and said, "Gyp would never attack anyone. He loves everyone." So I said, "Gyp, go sick 'em!" To both Todd and my surprise, Gyp flies over there barking and snarling like he is going to tear Todd's apart. I call him off and Todd runs home bawling his head off. I thought, wow, what an awesome dog I have! I later lied about the incident to Mom, which created another incident involving Dad and a belt, but that's a story for another time.
I loved Gyp!
marty
Gyp was one of those "once in a lifetime" dogs, and maybe the closest thing we've seen to Gyp was Kristen and Roberts dog Sam. That was a cool dog! I remember we had Tarvar tied to the front porch post and he went after something, hit the end of the chain and yanked the post right out from under the porch. He also got run over by a Tractor, we figured he was dead, and he just jumped up and came running back like it never happened. Tough dog! I did manage to find a couple of photos of Reno. I remember we went with Farnsworth's to Farmington Bay duck hunting, we had Reno and they had Mindy and those two black labs retrieved every duck that fell within about a half mile. We quickly had a pile of ducks that would even make the Farnsworths nervous and I think Newell gave some away and left most of them in the swamp. I do know that Gyp and Cocoa had puppies, does anyone remember the Green puppy? Surely the older siblings will remember one of them was green. But at least two of those dogs went to Broadbents and Reicherts, who both claim to this day those were the best bird dogs they have ever owned. I personally benefited from that pup of Reicherts, named Pluto... as I hunted pheasants behind that dog until it died of old age at about 14 or 15. So even Gyp and Cocoa's offspring was incredible. When Pluto died, Reicherts were devastated and never owned another dog. At Don's funeral recently they were still talking about that dog. I did get a yellow lab pup from Dana Beck and then I believe I gave it to Marty and Carrie, I think they owned the dog for a long time. Was it Rambo that would slink across the lawn like a mountain lion stalking a deer? Stalking Healey's poor bird dog... I remember how much fun we had throwing tennis balls out into Whitby's field for Reno to fetch, and how great he was at finding them. I know one time we went pheasant hunting out west of Utah Lake on some church farm and I think Reno caught two roosters on the ground before they could fly. We had some classic dogs!!
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