[...] Here in the Southland, where I was raised so many years ago, dogs weren’t kept just to have a dog. They had to have some sort of purpose in life. Like watch dog or hunting dog or kids dog. Most of the time, one dog had to fill all job descriptions. But not in Ted’s family. And nobody had house dogs, they were all yard dogs. The closest thing to a house dog was family pet and in my family that was almost always the best hunting dog.

Uncle “no pass” Ted had two rules about his dogs. One is they were all female and two, they were all named for family and family friends. The naming rule, of course, caused all kinds of confusion like when he would be yelling for his dog, Judy (my mother, his sister‘s name) out the backdoor “Dang it Judy, quit licking your butt and get over here.” [...]