“NO FEAR NELLIE” 2003-2019

We hoped for a definitive sign so that we wouldn’t have to make the decision. It didn’t happen. Today, by pre-arrangement, we said good-bye to our beloved pet Nellie. It seemed wrong to make such an appointment and then wait a day or two for the appointed hour while life went as usual. But of course, it wasn't "as usual" at all. It’s not a unique situation, so out of respect for you and your story, I won’t carry on – much.

A young Nellie

In 2013, when Nellie was in her tenth year, while still in apparent good health, she decided to retire from hunting. This was a dilemma since Mike wasn’t ready to hang it up. Enter Bess, and we became a two-dog family, which Mike justified by saying that the average lifespan of a German Shorthair Pointer is 11 years. We wouldn’t have two dogs for long, he said. I immediately thought of “The Pearl Necklace,” an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, where an old man convinces a young woman to marry him because he doesn’t have long to live. No spoiler alert.

Anyway, Nellie continued in slow age-related decline but basic good health. Initially, the worst of it was that she lost her hearing, but of course, the age issues were progressive. Today she was 15 ½.

I recall that summer of 2015 when Nellie sustained a rattlesnake bite at the farm. Mike drove her to our vet, who suggested he take her to the vet clinic at WSU. “Hey,” said Mike, “she’s gonna be 12 in a couple of weeks. We’ll just wait this out.” We made Nellie as comfortable as we could on the kitchen floor at the farm.

Learning of the bite, daughter Hallie called on “Face Time,” to ask if she should come to say good-bye. I told her I didn’t think it was the end.

“Show her to me,” insisted Hallie, so I carried my phone over to Nellie so that she could “Face Time” with Hallie. She was panting and had loss of appetite, but she came through that experience with her usual grace.

Hallie & Nellie during a camping trip

Mike has worked with German Shorthair Pointers for 50 years, and in recent years, the breed has been improved. Nellie was the first who truly related to people and became a family member. As son Clint put it, “Nellie was the first dog Mom liked.” I would say that she was as much my dog as Mike’s, and in these latter years, perhaps even more. KW

“No Fear Nellie”

9/11/2003 – 3/13/ 2019

[Photos of Nellie abound in my files, but today I show two that Hallie shared as her favorites.] 

THE WEATHER – 1934

The Farmhouse, 1940

December 31, 1933 --

“The snow is all gone off in a rain, [and there were] dreadful reports from California over the radio last night – 12 inches of rain in 30 hours, lives lost, damage to houses, bridges, roads, etc. We never had such work before at this time of year.”

January 1934

1940 -- the flat (north field) from behind the house

Ina writes: “No one here can recall such rain and floods at this time of year ever and we had such high winds for a week or more. June’s old bean house blew down onto grass separator damaging it a good deal.” She goes on to say that a big branch of her olivet cherry tree was broken in the wind. Grandpa Jack cut the tall pine just back of the house because it had become dangerous. He also cut down the group of small pines just northwest of the hog house, and Ina added that they now have a beautiful view of trees and mountains to the north and east.*

February 1934

“Weather like spring – fields and hills are greening.”

April 1, 1934

Everything is a month early, says Aunt Bertha

September 1934

A fire of two-weeks duration caused much damage in Little Canyon during the summer, but in September, Ina says, “. . . there was quite a lot of water in the creek and the springs seemed to be running good. Water is scarce on the hill, though, and people hauling from Wheeler Springs. We had a nice rain last Saturday night and it has cleared the atmosphere so that it is very beautiful now.”  She calls it a drought and adds that “the hot weather came just at the wrong time. ‘There’s always something to keep the rabbit’s tail short.’”

October

Ina wrote: “It has been awful dry and people hauling water and driving cattle and horses down into the canyon sides to springs, etc.” She goes on to say that in northern Alberta, where daughter Pearl and Al farm, it was wet through September “when they were praying for dry weather so as to save feed out of their hailed-out fields.”

November

“We’ve had a really lovely mild fall so far. The lawn and lot are as green as spring and fall grain coloring the hills beautifully.”

So, according to these letters, it seems that a mild winter of 1933-34 became an early spring, a hot dry summer, and a lovely mild autumn. Mid-January 1935 Ina commented that the snow was 15 inches deep and drifted.

Aunt Bertha commented in her letter of April 1934 that the man who predicted the San Francisco earthquake said that “this coast would have a Florida climate.” As I wondered aloud who might have predicted that, Mike suggested Edgar Cayce. I read many of his prophesies didn't find such a reference. KW

*The Dobson family took pictures over the years but evidently not of the hog house and not of the view to the north that Grandma Ina mentions. I suspect, though, that cutting those trees opened the view from the kitchen window.

AN EARLY SPRING -- 1934

Farmhouse, 1935

Spring is late this year, and people here are tired of the long winter. “Just as well have stayed in Minnesota,” grumbled the grocery clerk, but I have to think I’d just as soon be here as Minnesota.

Grandma Ina was not fond of the long Idaho winters that turned into “mud season” as spring approached, so after Christmas she frequently traveled, visiting son Vance in Raymond, WA; daughter Myrtle in Portland; and sisters Ida and Mabel in Drain, OR, among others. Train travel in those days was affordable and efficient. She would have taken the train from Orofino to Lewiston and made connections to Seattle or Portland. Cash was scarce on the farm, so she undoubtedly saved all year for the price of her ticket.

On Feb. 8, 1934, Ina wrote a brief note to Vance:

“Am figuring on coming. Round trip to Chehalis via Portland is $17.12 but only 10 days. One way $9.51. To Seattle one way $9.02. Can’t get longer than a 10-day round trip so will just get a one-way ticket. Seems to me Portland is nearer, and I could see Myrtle, too, going and coming. It’s almost mail time and I’m very busy today canning meat and otherwise caring for it. Weather like spring – fields and hills are greening.”

It would seem that spring came early in 1934 if the fields were turning green in February. An early spring is possible, of course, but then there are other scenarios, such as late frosts in an early spring, and that will devastate the fruit crop.

No snow (Jack and Ina? Or June and Bertha?)

Then I went to my collection of Aunt Bertha’s letters to see what she might tell me about the spring of 1934. (Remember, Bertha is Ina’s sister and lived on the adjoining farm.) She says, “We walked [to Ina's at Christmas] thru the only snow we could have used a sleigh on; just a flurry or two since. The man who predicted the San Francisco earthquake said this coast would have a Florida climate and I guess it has arrived – here’s hoping.” No, we have not developed weather akin to Florida here, but it’s rather interesting that someone would predict that in 1934.

Shirley hanging clothes, 1935

Bertha’s next letter, dated April 1, 1934, indicates that Ina is still visiting the sisters in Drain. And in her letter dated June 1, Bertha reported that “Shirley [Ina’s youngest daughter] is able to run a house, just did fine with Ina gone – planted garden and set hens, etc.” So, I conclude that Ina was away from home about three months, during which time Shirley took care of the house, meals, chickens, and even planted the garden.

Myrtle feeding chickens, 1935

As for the weather, Bertha says that “everything is a month earlier than usual except getting the farm work done. June finished planting beans the 28^th, but Julian not yet done – says he would have finished today [except it rained]. Wild roses all bloomed and gone.” KW