The family dog associated with my childhood was Teddy, the German shepherd, cocker spaniel, Labrador retriever mix. Sure there were other dogs, but he was the one who was there through most of my formative years.

Teddy was generally good-natured, but he was the only dog of ours that I remember who would occasionally bite someone. He bit Mama Tomp once when she and Tomp had come down from North Carrollton for a visit. He went after my friend Sidney another time, sending him into a Dukes of Hazzard-ish slide across the hood of his brand-new Z-28. We laughed about that later…actually, I laughed while it was happening.

Teddy also vehemently hated a stuffed German shepherd with a realistic-looking plastic head that my sisters kept tucked away in their closet. Occasionally, we would pull that thing out an...

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