#dixie belle

[thepopculturearchivist]

TIME, May 14, 1934

[the-pomegranate-cassock]

I did this a while back... I keep meaning to post it on here, & keep getting sidetracked.

[familywelltraveled]

Explore Lake Havasu City's London Bridge

Lake Havasu City, Arizona is home to one of Europe’s most famous historical landmarks – The London Bridge.  It’s a strange place to see the Union Jack or other symbols of Great Britain. But, people come from around the world to enjoy the desert lake and see a bit of European history at the London Bridge. Find out how to spend a day at the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City. Wait? What? The London…

Explore Lake Havasu City's London Bridge

[crittercrossing]

(November 2004)

Dixie, just over a year old!

[crittercrossing]

(February 2010)

This is my first dog, Dixie Belle. My mom always had her own dogs before I got my own, but they were definitely her dogs. Dixie was all mine, and as a Dog Kid, this was a huge deal.

BLOGGER'S NOTE: I know that this is an extremely problematic name, and I would never, ever name another pet something like this. Dixie was my first dog, and I was eight years old when I got her. I was raised in a conservative, rural area of the southern U.S., and this word was completely normalized in my family growing up. As best as I can remember, I picked this name because I liked the band now known as The Chicks.

Being a certified Dog Kid, I loved all dogs, but I had my favorite breeds. My favorite breed as a child was the golden retriever. I always dreamed of having one (or several). We didn't have the money to get a purebred dog, and actually, my mom had never, in her life, paid money for a dog before. People just got free dogs from people they knew when their dogs had puppies, or they rescued dogs they found outside. And so, when I was just old enough and dog-obsessed enough to start to have an understanding of how to take care of my own dog, fate brought a puppy my way.

Someone from the church my family went to had a female black Labrador retriever who was a yard dog, and the Lab had gotten pregnant by the local free-range golden retriever. I know—that sounds absolutely fake—but that is just the kind of area we live in. He was a very handsome dog, the pinnacle of what I dreamed of owning, but he had no known owner. No one knew where he came from. He just... wandered. I saw him traveling down the road a few times, always head held high and tail wagging, walking determinedly, as though he always had somewhere to be. Local legend.

Anyway, this person said her dog had had, if I recall correctly, 11 puppies, all solid black and pretty much looking like purebred Labs. The fact that they were half golden was great enough for me. Honestly, I loved all puppies. I begged my mom to let me have one, and on one fall afternoon, she drove me to the lady's house and let me meet the puppies. I remember sitting on her front porch and letting all the puppies tumble and climb about, and being drawn to one little female in particular. We painted her little claws with nail polish so that I'd remember which one to come back and get when they were old enough to go to their new homes.

When the time came, we brought two puppies home. My older cousin lived with us at the time, and he got a male puppy for himself, who he called Bo Dre (long story). Both puppies looked like purebred Labs when they were young. Unfortunately, Bo Dre passed away suddenly, without seeming to be sick at all beforehand, when he was four months old. Dixie, my pup, was thankfully very healthy, and we quickly became best friends.

She was such a good dog, naturally. We didn't actively do anything to housetrain her—she just knew. She was gentle with every person and animal she ever met, regardless of species. She would run and play for hours. She loved to get filthy—she would dig massive holes in the yard and roll in the dirt, as joyful as anything. Throughout her life, her nose always seemed to have a smudge of mud on it, no matter how recently she had been bathed.

She grew up to be pretty large, and as an adult, her golden retriever heritage was only visible in the fact that her coat was slightly longer than a purebred Lab's. She always wanted to be primarily outdoors, but she cherished her time in the house and loved jumping up on the furniture to sit with (or on) me.

Dixie had such kind, soulful eyes, and she was just present and there in the kind of way that makes you really appreciate the friendship that only a dog can offer.

She had several close friends throughout her life: first, Toby, one of my mom's dogs, a miniature poodle who eventually went blind. When he did, Dixie immediately took on the role of his guide dog. No one taught her to do that, and I swear, it was incredibly obvious just watching the two of them that she was leaning gently against him and guiding him around obstacles and towards beds and food and water. After Toby was gone, she grew close to Gizmo, my Shih Tzu, and they spent several happy years together of playing and relaxing. Dixie even met Holly when she was a baby puppy, and despite being many times Holly's size, Dixie was very gentle and careful with Holly.

Though she was starting to get older, she still met her end too early when she got out of the yard one day and was hit by a car. She was having some health concerns beforehand—she had started to grow a lump that was almost certainly a mammary tumor—but it still was really hard to lose her so unexpectedly. I think about her really often, and I miss her very much.

[crittercrossing]

(July 2008)

Such a good, happy dog. <3

[crittercrossing]

Some more water-damaged photos from the archives!

Top: November 2004 / Dixie and Toby! They were such good friends.

Middle: November 2004 / Happy the toy poodle in the backyard (featuring funky-looking fish guy in the background). You can kind of see his halfway-missing foreleg in this photo.

Bottom: September 2004 / Scruffy puppy! This was my grandparents' dog, very shortly after they first got him. He was advertised in the paper as a poodle/Pekingese mix, but my grandparents decided he must have been half Cocker spaniel instead of Pekingese. Who knows? He was a very, very cute puppy.

[crittercrossing]

Going back through the archives to the oldest pet photos I have in my collection: some photos that my mom took of some of her dogs! These dogs lived with us during my childhood, and I remember them all well, but they weren't my dogs. These photos were taken in March 2002, over a year before I would have my very first dog of my own.

The top photo is of Happy, a toy poodle that my parents rescued. I remember the day we found him. We were all in the car, driving down a back road in our town, when this tiny brown creature walked out in the road. My dad stopped the car, got out, picked up the poodle, and walked up to the house that we had pulled over in front of to ask if the person knew whose dog this was. The dog belonged to the person who answered the door, and she was completely unconcerned that her dog had almost gotten hit. She let him roam freely, and then offered him to my dad on the spot. So, he came home with us. I don't recall now if he already had his name or if we named him, but I do know that his name was Happy because he was just so happy, despite the circumstances. He was missing half of one of his forelegs, but he got around great and acted like it never bothered him whatsoever. He was a super sweet boy. His age was unknown when we got him, but he lived with us for several years.

The middle photo is of Patches, who was born in May 1992. She was half poodle and half Chihuahua, and she was pretty much my mom's best friend. She was overall very patient and sweet, but knew how to stand up for herself when other dogs or children (read: me) annoyed her. My mom got Patches as a tiny puppy from someone she knew, who owned the parents.

The bottom photo is of Toby, a miniature poodle who was born in October 1998. Toby was a super sweet dog who was given to my mom by a relative. I don't remember the exact situation now, but he was grown when we got him. After I got Dixie, my first dog, Toby was very close to her. He eventually went blind, and when he did, he relied heavily on Dixie, who naturally took on a guide dog role and visibly led him around the house and yard.