Come and listen to a story about a dog named Jed. Don’t think he’s too special — he’s not the first pet in our family to be bestowed the Clampett name.
Jed is a 1 ½ -year old Mountain Cur adopted from It Takes a Village Canine Rescue. He had been living in a pigpen in Winslow, Ind. Mountain Curs are working dogs bred for trailing and treeing small game, like squirrel and raccoons. Jed loves to play with footballs and he jumps really high. During the week, Jed often visits our offices. He also goes to O’Hairs Happydog Daycare, where his best friend is an English bulldog named Maceo.
Jed was preceded by two really great dogs. Pearl Bodine was a beautiful blonde rescue retriever collie mix. Her X-rays showed she had been shot with pellets. Pearl’s successor was Jethro (he had the middle name Bodine, too), a black Labrador who died at the age of 16. In his prime, Jethro weighed 105 pounds!
Our cats are Lucky and Lou. Lucky, named because she dined on salmon soon after being adopted from the Vanderburgh Humane Society, is indiscriminately affectionate; repairmen to our home know her well, though she does have a knack for throwing herself on cat lovers. Her folded ears result from hematomas, surgically fixed, that she had in both ears as a kitten.
Lou is a plush gray cat, much larger than he looks in this picture. He is very sweet, never misbehaves, and has a small meow for a big boy.
Before these cats we had Cassandra, a sweet calico; Leona Helmsley, a blue point Siamese that characteristically liked my husband best; Lance, an orange tabby that sadly died young, named after the famous cyclist; and Hiawatha, years ago discovered as a tiny kitten up under my husband’s van.