18 – Pets

Mom grew up on a farm; there were a lot of animals, but no indoor pets. Dad was a city boy: Fond du Lac, St. Louis, Milwaukee; and they had a dog, and when I came on the scene, my grandfather had some parakeets he kept in a small cage indoors.

The Farm Story

Horses were for farming; but they lived long and weren't raised for their meat, so it probably was easy to become friends with them; they typically had names, something you do with pets.

Granddad (Dan Knaus) on his favorite horse as a young man

Granddad using horses to plow - animals had their jobs

Visiting the Farm

When we visited the farm in Colorado as children in the 1960s and 1970s the animals were always a big attraction. Granddad still had a horse we could try riding, we might try milking one of his cows, search out eggs in the chicken coop, etc. Milk cows didn't live so long, but I recall Granddad treating them a bit like pets: they would come to his call, probably just conditioned to come for milking - I'm not sure if he gave them names however. 

My sister and I before falling off

There was always a dog named Jack; the instance would change every couple years - farm life was hard on a dog, and "Jack" always seemed to like chasing cars too much, and he was treated more like a farm hand than a pet. As were the cats: their job was to deal with the mice, and although Granddad would give the young ones a little drink after milking the cows, they were scratchy and wild around us kids, and we quickly learned to keep our distance. 

Scratchy cats getting their milk

There were lots of cows, occasionally sheep - and perhaps a lamb that needed to be fed a milk bottle, chickens and roosters. Basically lots of animals, still no real pets, and you wouldn't catch one inside the house. You might need to tame a cow a bit in order to take it to the fair for a 4H exhibit, but knowing the ultimate fate of the animal, it wasn't good to get too close. So animals were part of the farm operation. 

Granddad feeding an abandoned lamb

The City Story

On Dad's side it was a bit different. His family had lived in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin since the mid-19th century; his paternal grandfather had grown up on a farm on the other side of the county, and had run the county Asylum and its associated farm operation, but his maternal grandfather had been born in the city, and followed in his father's footsteps as a baker. Photos show their various pets, and even their ponies seemed a bit pet-like. 

My Great-grandfather Jacob Gerhard with a substantial dog at his feet, my grandmother with a kitten

Great-great Aunt Caroline Gerhard (Lina) with horse named Robbie

Even though they were city people, the Gerhards maintained a residence on the outskirts of Fond du Lac they referred to as "the Farm" and it had a rural feel. Animals were part of the bakery operation: until motor-driven trucks appeared in the 1920s, horses pulled the wagons they used to deliver bread to stores. Apparently they named the horses – in this photo Lina is shown feeding a "bakery horse" named Baldy: 

This photo shows a couple ponies with crocheted blankets draped over them; surely they were more pets than work animals: 

City pets were there to entertain, to be companions; in return they were given room and board, and treated like part of the family, pretty much pets as most of us know them today. Harry, my dad's older brother, wrote an eighth-grade autobiography with a chapter "My Pets," sandwiched between chapters titled "My Hobbies" and "Pet Peeves,"  in which he talks about his dog Trixie:  "She is a very roly-poly Spitz and she stops barking only long enough to refill with a drink of water. But a dog is better than no dog so I hope Trixie lives a good many years yet."

Harry Jr. with his dog Trixie

 

My Aunt Pat with pet chicken and Trixie

Farm and City Pet Culture Intersect

And so, when Mom and Dad married, there was a bit of a difference between them concerning pet culture; Mom was uncomfortable with having a pet indoors and the extra work entailed in cleaning, and she had children, six of us eventually, to love and hold. Dad, I think, missed having a dog around, someone to give him unconditional love which we children didn't. And so, one day when a couple of us had grown and gone off to college, and they were living in New Jersey, Dad brought a puppy home from work as city manager that some police had rescued, "just for the night," and it became part of the family. But when "Pepper" eventually grew old and had to be put down, Mom did not encourage a replacement.

Mom with Pepper

My wife had a dog and a cat when we married, and we've had a cat since, but raising three children has otherwise been enough. I look forward, however, to the day I can convince my wife to get another dog – maybe one like Malia.

Malia on beach in Half Moon Bay

One More Item

I came across this photo of Uncle Harry in the brief weeks he had after his marriage and before he shipped off to England to fight in World War II. It looks like one of the first things he and Kathryn did was to get a dog; after three years in the military academy without one, that was probably a priority!

Harry and Kathryn and their puppy