It was the kind of place where everyone knew each other’s name, and the name of their cat, too.
— Phaedea Patrick, The Messy Lives of Book People
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The kind of place I grew up in. But dogs, horses, and cows as well as cats.
Tinker, Kitty Boy, Trixie, Sissie, Pansy, Miss Pedulla, Rider, Walker, Steve, Walter, Roscoe, Two-Spot, Loretta, Smoky, Sudsy, Polio, Bootsie, Josephine, Lassie, Blackie, Queenie. Rowdy. Randy, Windy, Blaze, Mahalia, Moses, Sam, John, Wilma, Tiger, Lady, Blaze, Flicka, Mickey, Pilon, Ichabod, Sissie, King, Mutt, Peppy, Sam, Coaly, Tippy, Steve, Goody, Eegie, Sandy, Tommy, Rags, Jolie Blonde, Tramp . . .
Those were other people’s pets, not mine. Duplicate names refer to different animals.
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M. K. Waller 
Kathy, I have temporarily misplaced your email address. I think it is on my phone, but I am too lazy to get up from the computer to go to another room to look for it. Can you please send me an email again? I have started a mail to you about the Mann family. Hugs, LK
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I’ll send my email address. Definitely want to read the Mann family stories. And to stay in touch with my Fentress family.
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We had some of those pet names, too! Trixie, Lassie, Sam, Coaly… along with Rusty, Muffin, Gus, Scooter, Kalamazoo, Little Blue, Fooler, Pal, and many many more. 🙂
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I wonder if everyone, at least since Lassie Come Home, has had a Lassie, no matter what the breed. Fooler–it sounds as if there’s a story behind that one.
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Thanks Kathy for providing this video. There’s a big place in my heart for all things Fentress. I spent many summers and holidays in the home of my grandparents, Dick and Janie Ward. Those were magical times. On cats, Grandaddy would open the back porch screen door, raise his jug of milk, and say “Kitty.” Immediately, 5 or 6 rushed to the old cook stove door used as a feeding trough. No names that I know of. Walking with Daddy to town (2 blocks) we would toss gravel rocks. One time he threw one that hit the roof of the seed house. That’s where my cousins and I somehow got inside and jumped from the rafters onto the cotton seed below. Sugar Man Dauchy sold me a dog while he and others were sitting on the bench in front of the ost office. All I had to do was write a check for $25. They got a blank piece of paper and told me how to write the check. The dog, we named Buttermilk, went home with me to South Texas. And the river…. ohhh the river.
Thanks again,
Don Ward
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Thank you so much for those memories! In my estimation, Dick Ward was the closest thing to royalty Fentress–and the surrounding counties–ever had. He used to stake his Jersey cow to graze near his house, but I never asked her name. I can just see Joe Dauchy selling you that dog. The town, the people, the river–a magical place for children.
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