Rollinson Pets through the Years

Dakota

2007-2022
60 lbs of all-American goodness. Originally we thought he was German shepherd, hound, possibly pit-bull. In 2021 I got his DNA analyzed by Embark. Surprise! He was officially 31% Siberian husky (totally explains his thick undercoat), 25% Labrador retriever, 20% Golden retriever, 9% rottweiler, 8% German shepherd, 5% collie.

Dakota was best described as "handsome". He wore his age well! (Photos from 2009, 2012, and 2019.)

Dakota was the first time we adopted an adult dog - and I doubt we'll ever get a puppy again! He was smart enough to be trained ("Just let me figure out what you want me to do!") and (unlike Gellie) not smart enough to get into serious trouble.

Dakota was the definition of a social animal. He adored 20-something males with a pickup truck. He was adaptable to being in four houses - when we went to India, he spent two-plus years with my sister (and her famiily) in suburban Chicago. The perfect dog.

Sadie

2014-
Brittany Spaniel mix.

Strictly speaking, Sadie isn't our dog, she's our "Granddog" - she belongs to our son, John, and his wife, Mandi. But since both John and Mandi are in the army, we have had "custody" of Sadie when both are unavailable (e.g. tours in Afghanistan).

Magellan, "Gellie"

1994-2008
BBD (Basic Black Dog); Border collie mix

Gellie through the years (1997, 2004, 2004). It's very difficult to get a good photo of an all-black dog.

Stories of Gellie could fill a small book. When we got her as a small black puppy, we thought she was a black lab mix. Hah! When Gellie was about two years old, we came to the realization that she was behaving like a border collie - in our case, she was herding our cats, rather than lambs and sheep. We could have had a better relationship had we known this from the beginning.

Gellie was my dog. When I was at work, she would sleep on our bed. Others could come and go, but only when she heard my van approaching, did she get up to greet me at the back door.

Gellie's favorite game was "escape", usually played with humans who didn't know they were playing it. When someone approached the backyard gate or the front door, Gellie waited in the background, then the moment the gate or door opened she would become a black blur and race through the gate or door. Once outside she knew how to get into trouble - mostly by raiding neighborhood garbage cans, and then getting violently sick - to the point of needing an emergency visit to the vet.

Gellie didn't like being out at night. If we were out on our property, as it got dark, she would look longingly at the truck as if to say, "See that! It's time to go home. Now!" When we moved into our new house, I would let Gellie out the front door just before bedtime, and within five minutes, she would be knocking at the deck door to come in. Then it got to be 10 minutes, then 20 minutes. After a few months, it got to be 45 minutes. Apparently Gellie had changed her mind about the dark. Then she was picked up on my game camera down near the entrance to our property. BUSTED! That summer we fenced in a small yard for the dogs.

Kovu

2003-2009
Siberian Husky, severely epileptic.

When your daughter is a senior in high school and convinces you that she should bring home a "nice dog that needs a good home", you know who actually "owns" the dog. Kovu's original owners wanted to euthanize her because they were tired of dealing with her epilepsy. The vet was reluctant, and a friend of Christy's who volunteered at the vet's clinic, convinced Christy (and us), that it would be a shame to put down a beautiful, loving dog with one major, but treatable, problem.

Kovu's epilepsy required a massive dose of phenobarbital, and she still had a major seizure at least once a month. The drug made her mostly a "zombie", and she was unable to handle any training - she "rebooted" several times a day, with her memory seemingly wiped clean each time. But she was gentle and loving. She hated thunder, and would squeeze behind a toilet during thunderstorms. It's difficult to understand how a dog of her considerable size (although it was mostly fur) could hide behind a toilet, or so far under a bush as to be invisible.

Kovu's death was memorable. She was absolutely fine (in a Kovu sort-of way) when I took her out at 11:30 PM. At 1 AM she howled/sang three times. When I went downstairs to try to quiet her down (we were living in a townhouse at the time), she was dead - laying on the floor in front of the couch where she usually slept. I guess her brain finally gave up.

Sarge

?
Totally mixed up.

Sarge, Christy, and Gellie

Sarge came to us when her family relocated to Myrtle Beach. She pined for her "real" family, and when they came back to Clifton Forge in less than a year, she was delighted to rejoin them.

Clark

1995-2005
Tortoise-shell calico; littermate of Lewis.

Lewis & Clark liked to sleep together on top of my laser printer.

Clark was my favorite cat. We got the cats when we had a mouse problem in our garage and needed natural pest control after Gellie managed to eat a box of rat poison. The cats were supposed to be "outside cats", but we let them come into the house during a 3-foot snowfall in January 1996, and after that they preferred to spend a lot of time inside.

Lewis

1995-2006
Orange tabby; "Lewie the Large"; littermate of Clark.

Lewis lived a rather placid life. He loved to eat, and would eat Clark's portion given half a chance. Fat, lazy, contented.

Marty

1980-1994
Half St. Bernard, half fence-jumper.

Marty at 6 weeks; about 4 months; about 6 months. Marty lived before digital photos, so I still have to find a few snapshots to scan and add.

Marty was our "starter dog". We got her within a few days of moving to Virginia. Tall and lean, she was 70 lbs of gentleness. A born mother, she was very patient with infants, and let them crawl over her, chew on her tail, and play with her floppy ears. But when children got to be about 2 years old, she let them know that they were now old enough to know better than to mistreat the family dog.

| Home | | Life | | Liberty | | Pursuit of Happiness |