The dog "Catcherette"!

[Nanook]

<span style="font-weight: bold">Proctor Journal, August 4, 1977.</span>



I have to laugh, I got a LOT of press. I was also featured on all three network local evening news over it all. I boiled the blood of a few while they were eating dinner I'm sure...when little FiFi came RUNNING up to me on the street just because I got down on the ground &amp; called her and talked nice! That was the news clip, with me talking baby talk to the dogs and they came running!


I actually must have said for them to call me &quot;catcherette&quot;....I do remember it was jokingly, but still. They plain didn't know WHAT to call me! I kind of remember the conversation. In those days we used &quot;ette'; a lot...as a suffix.



I had to take the dogs to Duluth, but in cases where I knew my phone would be ringing soon, I just took them to my house and saved the gas. I had an old Ford Falcon with a broomstick for a shifter. it was my own car! I had to quit after about a year or so, when I insisted they buy me a vehicle. That was after some dog escaped through the hole in my floorboards wearing MY equipment!


I thought the articles were long lost until I got this today from my dad!



Here it is, in all it's glory!

[diabolical_Tanya]

Re: The dog &quot;Catcherette&quot;!

awwwwwwe thats sweet

[Nanook]

Re: The dog &quot;Catcherette&quot;!

Hey Tanya, I look back at it all and come to think of it, this was my virgin step into the village of the unknown sex/equality back then, but I had already been running around protesting Vietnam and helping publish underground newspapers so the unheard act of becoming the first woman dog catcher was so not a stretch! It ended up in me working road construction and in a northern Minnesota Paper mill living the movie &quot;North Country&quot;, exactly, except for the settlement $$. It was an interesting ride for lack of a better description, which would greatly detract from the story to come....


Anyway, I posted this on Facebook tonight and it is one of the highlights of my life, actually....about one of the dogs I picked up.

One sunny afternoon I just happened to be at the local convenience store for gas when a little Cockapoo was sitting underneath a motor home. Nobody could get him to come out. He just sat under there and growled... and barked at everyone.

The owners of the motorhome didn't know what the heck to do. they were afraid to drive away and possibly run over the little guy, When I happened to just show up I reached under there and grabbed him and he bit me, HARD! He broke skin so I brought him to the pound, and was glad to leave him there!

I was down there a few times that week and every time I saw him sitting there shaking I felt sorry for him but nobody was calling, and dammit he bit me!

On right around the last day of his existence on this earth, I got a call from Duluth. The owner of the dog was in Chicago. The family had been vacationing in the area and stopped for gas. They did not know that the dog had gotten out of the unit and they drove off. Later, I heard reports about a little dog running down the freeway, it was him, he was chasing the motorhome that his owners drove away in! &lt;insert crying smilie here&gt;

OMG, I was down to the pound lickety split! I was told his name was Ruffles, so I went to the runs and said...&quot;ruffles have ridges&quot;....and the little guy just went berserk to hear his name!!

Well, I took him home and gave him a bath and lavished attention on him for a few days while I waited for a check to arrive from his owners. I bought him a crate and an airplane ticket to Chicago and sent him home.

What I wouldn't give...to still have the awesome letter I got from the family after Ruffles was successfully reunited!

One of the highlights of my life actually! I just happened to be in the right place at the right time that day.

[Jamaicamiss]

Re: The dog &quot;Catcherette&quot;!

You have indeed had a colorful life. Question: did you last more than a year?

[Nanook]

Re: The dog &quot;Catcherette&quot;!

I have never been one to sit around and waste any time, lol. I think I did it for about a year an a half. I had to use my own vehicle and when my car started to fall apart, I asked for a truck. The city council said they had no money to buy me one so they had to find a new animal control officer!

The old car I used was a 60 something Ford Falcon in grass green, it used to be a telephone company car...it was well worn and even had a broomstick for a handle. It also had holes in the floorboards, and pretty much no heat and when a dog escaped through the floor wearing my equipment well...it was time to end the job for me.

I got paid a base salary plus so much $$ each dog after 5 or some such thing. If I wanted to go out for lunch or something, all I had to do was go catch a couple of dogs... and I did too! Sometimes a friend would come and help me and we'd really go to town!

Seriously though, people did start letting their dogs run loose, less. The dogs were safer with me on the streets than getting hit by a car!

[Jazz]

Re: The dog &quot;Catcherette&quot;!

Nanook - LOVE IT!!! - what a groundbreaker you are!

Pretty, pert, petite blonde

[kia027]

Re: The dog &quot;Catcherette&quot;!

Nanook that is a wonderful article!! Here it is many years later and you are surrounded by animals still

It is amazing how language has changed over the years too

[Nanook]

Re: The dog &quot;Catcherette&quot;!

Hey Jazz and Kia! Yes..the times have thankfully changed! Sadly, there are still &quot;good old boy's&quot; clubs and the fight continues for equality among both race and sex.

Now, if only I can find the article from when I was in around 2nd grade....they used to publish a free want ad once a year for the school kids.

Mine read

<span style="font-style: italic">Will take care of your birds and fish while you are away. Call RA2-7103 and ask for Stephanie.</span>

I am sure it is around somewhere...and maybe the next time I go help my dad sort through boxes from his recent move, I might run across it.

Dammit if I haven't been a pet sitter since a half a century ago!