Family Pets - Early days

When I was going through old photos and trying to group them, one category that was obvious was Pets.  Every once in a while there would be a photo of an animal with no human in sight. I guess people like to take pictures of the family pet. I am no different, my current cat Pumpkin has her own folder with 80 pictures. (Note to self, clean up that folder...)

The first three photos in the pile were presented in my last post about Peggy the Bear taken in 1937. I am not sure if she can be classified as a pet, but there were not tons of photos of animals drinking fizz-less soda either, I had to put it in one of the piles (categories). I must say, the other photos in that pile are kind of interesting.

Taken around 1943, the first photo is of a cat lounging in the shade. It is annotated with "camouflaged cat". The name of the cat is Spooky and it was a pet of the Albia Provoncha family when they lived on Seymour Street in Middlebury.

There was another of Spooky lounging on a wooden floor. The life of a cat is tough...

The next photo is of a pair of kittens. I think one of these would be named Stinky and he was a pet at the Harold Provoncha home on Weybridge Street. The photo is labeled as 1953, before I was born...

Here is one of Stinky in 1955 as an adult. I recognize the corner of the porch at the Weybridge Street home. Little bit of snow. I am not sure if that is the shadow of the cat on the wall, or a wet spot where snow has melted. What do you think?

One of my earliest memories is of our pet dog Prince. He was usually chained up between the house and the garage. He made a few appearances in some of the home videos I have been sharing. He was a wonderful dog to have as a pet. Again, looks like snow on the ground...

In the middle of the 1960s, my dad brought home a stray cat that was hanging out at the National Bank of Middlebury. They had been feeding it for a while but dad decided to take it in. Back then, there were not a lot of organizations helping. Here is a small clip of her in the yard at the Weybridge Street home...

Tuffy was a long-haired gray cat. Taffy begat Diablo, an all black short-hair cat. Diablo begat these three kittens, we kept the gray one and named it Luke.

Three cats in a hat on a lounge chair...I assume they are lounging like Spooky.






Below you can see two of them darting from under the picnic table...

The three in our mailbox on the front porch. Luke is sticking his tongue out. I think one of the black and white cats ended up with Carolyn Leggett but I am not positive about that...

Luke as an adult later in the same year...

My brother John always liked dogs and he brought over this little pup named Valerie. Out in the snow, Valerie got along with all the cats including Luke...

It is cool that the pets are just an extension of the family, portraits and all...