Mop

[Wilma]

Every family needs a dog.  Right?  Right.  We didn't have a dog.  So when someone offered my father a puppy, he accepted it and brought it home.  Ostensibly for my little brother, because little boys need a dog.  The puppy was part collie and part bull dog.  Quite a combination.

Now, puppies need a name.  Right?  Right.  And usually people choose a name for a puppy.  Not this puppy.  He chose his own name.  The only way we could have a dog was if it stayed outside.  Now, honestly, can you keep a new puppy outside?  We couldn't.  Every time he was allowed to come in, someone would holler, "Get the mop".  So he thought Mop was his name and started answering to it.  So Mop it was.

Mop was quite a dog.  He was the usual cute, cuddly, playful puppy and learned the usual obedience things.  He would come when called.  He would......................well, he would come when called.

He loved Easter egg hunts.  He loved them so much he had to be tied up so the eggs could be hidden.  Then we had to really scramble to find the eggs before he did.  He didn't eat them, he just liked to carry them around in his mouth.  He even started hiding his own eggs.  One day Mother found a fresh egg where it shouldn't have been.  Then one day she found Mop coming out of the hen house with an egg in his mouth.  From then on the hen house was fixed so he couldn't get in.  He never ate the eggs like a dog usually does.  he just liked to carry them.

He was good with the cows.  He would go with whoever was bringing the cows in, being careful to stay behind the cows.  He was even careful to stay behind the person driving the cows.  If one of them turned to protest, Mop was the first to run to the other side of a fence, thus diverting the cow's attention, while the driver turned her around.

He was also a very good meteorologist.  He could tell a storm was coming a long time before it ever showed up on the horizon.  He would start following Mother around the house.  he on the outside, she on the inside.  He would always be just outside the door or window she was closest to.

OK, so these weren't fantastic talents, but he was a very good guard dog.  No stranger and most of the neighbors could get to the house until Mother told him it was all right.  We had one good neighbor that thought he could outsmart the old dog.  He would try to drive in very quietly and slip to the house without Mop knowing he was in the yard.  He never did make it.  By the time he got to the house, Mop would be sitting with his back against the door, laughing at him.

Mop came to live with us in 1944.  he moved to a farm with us in 1946, then to Elk County in 1947.  We all grew up, married and moved away, but Mop stayed with my parents on the farm for many years.  He was my mother's constant companion while my father was working second shift at Beech Aircraft in Wichita.

One day the old dog disappeared.  He was blind and became disoriented easily.  Days went by without his return.  Then one day, while en route to the farm, we spotted something on the bank of the pond.  As soon as he could, my husband went to investigate.  Sure enough, the old dog had found his way home and had made it to a place that was familiar, where he had spent many, many hours with the people he loved.

Mop was about 15 years old when he died.  He was the only dog my folks ever had on the farm.  After he died, they decided they didn't need another dog.  Although none of us have ever forgotten the old dog, we couldn't remember when he died.  I decided to call my little brother, whom I thought would remember better than anyone else.  To my surprise, he said he had also been thinking about Mop.

[Janet Harrington]

I even got to know Mop.  He was a grand dog.  If Mother can come up with a picture of him, I'll post it.

Now, the dogs I remember from growing up are several.  We always had pets.  We had Pedro, Prince, Duke, Captain, and Sparkles.

Most parents seem to get to have their childrens pets because the children move on and the pets stay.  Or the children get a pet, then bring it home because they can't keep it, so mom and dad get to have the pet to finish raising.

Prince was a bird dog, pointer, I think.  Duke was a coon dog, redbone coon dog.  He was red anyway.  Duke was the one that I think would bite, so we weren't allowed to be around him very much.

Pedro was a little medium size dog, black hair and it was short.  Pedro had mange.  He always looked awful and his hair would disappear mostly in the summer.  He became old, deaf, and blind.  He died when Teresa's great-aunt Edna Palmer ran over him when she was backing out of her driveway.  She was more upset then we were.  I think Mother had prepared us for something like this happening.

Captain was the best dog.  He was part Collie and part something else.  He came from a litter when the mother looked like Lassie.  Captain had the coloring of a collie, but he was short hair.  He stayed in the house most of the time and would lay behind the wood stove.  He was so big he took up all the room behind the stove and if one of us girls wanted to stand back there to get warm, he would always be in the way.  He would also lay in my dad's vinyl recliner.  He would stay there until he knew Daddy was home from work and then he would get out of the recliner, so that Daddy wouldn't find him in the chair.  It was always so funny.

Sparkles was my dog.  She was a little dog with the coloring of a collie and long hair.  I got her from the neighbrs and took her to college in Emporia when I was going to school there and lived in a house.  Everything was fine until she chewed up my roommates shoes.  I took her home and she became a wonderful companion for Mom and Dad.  She went everywhere with them.  When they happened to go on vacation, she would go and they wouldn't stay at any motel that wouldn't let Sparkles stay, too.  She was a good traveler.  She lived a long, long time and when she died, Daddy called me to tell me and, of course, we both cried.

Mom and Dad got to finish raising two more of my dogs, Pupperdog and Ace.  They were black labs mixed with German Shepherd.  Pupperdog was Ace's mother.  They lived a long time and were a lot of company for Daddy.

I think my parents are why I like big dogs.  The dog I have now, Colonel, is as big as Captain was.  He is a good dog, too.

I'll post pictures as soon as I get some scanned.

[Wilma]

Colonel is bigger and heavier than Captain ever was.

[Janet Harrington]

I placed a picture of Grandma Hancock's dog, Mop, on Mother's writing about Mop.  Grandpa may have brought it home for Dale, Mother's brother, but Mop was definately Grandma's dog.