"I had a dog!" from the life story of Ernest Robert Tigner, my maternal grandfather

When we got out of Wenatchee twenty or thirty miles to the little town of Trinidad, (NE Washington) we pulled into a vacant lot and were eating our lunch. (grandpa was eight years old and they were moving by horse and wagon, around 1908) A dog came over and I , of course, started throwing him tidbits of our lunch . The dog became very friendly and so I begged my dad to buy me that dog.

He was a good-sized bulldog. He was not a purebred, but he was a beautiful brown and white dog. Dad looked the dog over and said, "That's a pretty nice dog, but that dog ain't for sale." We got ready to leave and the dog started back to the thouse where he came from. Then my dad said, "Welll, go on over there to the house and ask the folks if they want to sell the dog."

I took off with that dog and went over to the house and knocked on the back door. A lady came to the door, and I told her that we were moving to north of Spokane, out in timber country, and we did not have a dog. I asked her if she would sell that dog.

Then she started crying. That confused me quite a bit, and finally she wiped her eyses and said, "Sonny, if you want the dog, the dog is yours, " She continued, "I had a boy just about your age who passed away two months ago, and that dog has never been the same. They were constant pals." She told me, "You take the dog, because I know you will take good care of him." Boy did I take off. I had a dog!"