In the early 1900's, my grandfather Willie was a milkman. He harnessed up his horses every morning and loaded his wagon with cases of milk bottles for delivery. I can imagine my grandfather in the wee hours of the morning while everyone was still fast asleep, saying to his horses "Come' on little doggies it's time to deliver the milk."

When I was a little boy, in the late 1950's, he gave us our first dog. We named him Brownie. My grandparents lived on Georgia Avenue in Brooklyn, NY where they found him.  Brownie was a small dog with long brown hair. He was probably part Cocker Spaniel. My grandfather felt sorry for Brownie because the neighborhood kids weren't kind to him. They would hit him and put chewing gum in his hair. I remember being told that someone feed Brownie regularly but they didn't give him the love and care he needed. Brownie was always afraid to eat his food if you were watching him. Brownie had a great life with us and he lived to be 16. One day my father let Brownie outside and he never returned. I searched for him endlessly, but I never found him. We lived in a wooded area and hopefully Brownie laid himself down in the woods and drifted off to sleep. We still wonder what happened to him.

One hundred years have passed since my grandfather harnessed up his horses to make his milk deliveries. I will miss him always. But my grandfather's kindness is still alive in me today. Whenever I leash up my two adopted dogs, Fletcher and Andy, I say to them, "Come' on little doggies let's go, it's time for a walk."

Pictured above is Fletcher and Andy. Fletcher is on the left. We call him a kissyhund but he is actually a large  Pomeranian. He is 19 lbs.!  If you get your face too close to his you will find out how he got his nickname. I adopted him from a municipal animal shelter. Fletcher won First Place at the NLCA 2000 National Specialty in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Of course it was in the "All Pet Division." Dr. Williams was the Judge and the competition was fierce. Andy is on the right and he weighs 17 lbs. and we all know what breed he is. I adopted him through a newspaper ad that our club was notified about. Andy was 8 when I adopted him and he is 9 years old now. Fletcher and Andy are like brothers and Andy has learned a lot through their friendship. Andy is a former TV Star. He appeared on "Regis and Kathy Lee" on September 11, 1997 and "Today in New York" on Nov 1, 1997.  He did a pilot for Fox called the "Randi Rhodes Show" on Oct. 3, 1998   and his final TV appearance was on "Later Today" in Oct. of 1999. Andy now devotes his time to his family and is a participant in the Texas A&M Lundehund Health Study and he hopes his test results will be helpful to his fellow Lundehunds.

© 2004 NLCA, Inc.    Rev. 4/04