The Nortons lived over the hill from us. The paved road ended just past their house, and we never had much reason to go that direction. They had a dog, though, that decided he wanted to live with us. The dog was mostly black, a mutt who was maybe part collie. He just showed up one day and acted like he belonged. I believe that Dad reported the missing canine to the Nortons, but they didn’t seem to care where their dog took up residence. Dad tried to run him off, but for whatever reason, he chose to stay with us.

There were a couple of reasons the Nortons’ dog probably chose to stay with us more than a day or two: first, we fed him and, second, we named him. I don’t remember why, but we named him Jock, and he became part of our animal entourage, Teddy’s sidekick. Every d...

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