Part 4 (2/2)

Whether orking or playing, that rule of command held true in our fa in the Johnson fah the years without question and with no thought of breaking

We always had a set of four boxing gloves I say always because I can't re, we obeyed the rules of not hitting in the face nor below the belt Another strict rule was, ”Don't get et mad, youIf you couldn't stand to be pinned down, you just didn't wrestle

You can bet your boots, we all boxed and we all wrestled No one wanted to be left out of the action And the only way to stay in the action was to obey the rules and take whatever the other one dished out

This didn'tkids were unmerciful to the little ones There was another rule, ”Don't hurt the little ones Don't hold the little one down after he yells 'calf rope' Back away and let hih and rowdy,” but alith smiles on our faces And the rules of fair play applied to our ani that was part Collie and part Shepherd He greith us kids and becaht him to us kids at the Exu, playful puppy Papa had given five dollars for him, which was a lot ofour fa to his bloodlines, he was half Collie and half Shepherd, but according to us Johnson kids, he was just all dog- a gentleuardian and protector of children, truly a little boy's best friend

We were taught never to abuse Old Scotch while he was a puppy, and as he grew older, we couldn't abuse him, he wouldn't allow it And ere told never to call hiood reason, such as to feed hi with us Papa told us that if the dog trusted us, he would obey us better

I guess that was good advice At any rate, Old Scotch obeyed orders and co I have ever seen, either in or out of the movies He even obeyed requests which were not meant as co We just let hiroith us and by the ti than most of us kids

However, we did teach Old Scotch to do a few si spectacular He would sit doe told him to And he would hold still while we placed a small stick on top of his nose, and remain still until we counted to three Then at the count of three, he would quickly flip it off his nose and catch it in his ratulations and a kind word or two

We taught him to keep the chickens off the porch and out of the yard That was an easy job He soon learned to do it without having to be told

We kids liked to sit under the steering wheel of our car and pretend ere driving Soon Old Scotch was doing the sa Sometimes e kids opened the car door, ould have to hurry or Old Scotch would beat us to the steering wheel He was only playing with us kids when he did that He wouldn't do Papa that way

One of his favorite gaame of wolf-over-the-river He liked for us to try to catch him and take the stick He also liked to play catch-but only with a rubber ball We would pitch the ball to him and he would catch it and return it to us However, there was a strict rule in this game-never throw a hard ball to hiin to distrust and disobey us

He learned not to trust sohbor kids They sometimes threw him a hard ball They didn't ”Do unto Old Scotch as they would have Old Scotch do unto the to eat that he had never seen nor tasted before, and if he wasn't sure of it, he h faith in us boys to think that, if he could see us eat some of it, then he would not be afraid to try it So, ould let him see us eat some of it, or at least ould pretend to eat it

Our dog didn't have the long Collie-like nose, but rather a beautiful short nose like the Alaskan Husky Nor was his coat long and stringy but was short and heavy,His color was a deep reddish broith just the right touches of white about the head His body was round and full His shoulders and hips were broad, as though somewhere in his ancestry there was most certainly a St Bernard

Old Scotch couldn't bear the sound of thunder During a thunderstoret under a bed That's the only time we ever let him in the house The noise must have hurt his ears Firecrackers affected him the same way He would tolerate the noise of a rifle when he was out hunting with us, but he wouldn't allow even his best friends to ai at hiun at him any more than ould aim one at each other But a brooun to Old Scotch When we ai at him, he wouldn't bite us to really tear us apart, but he would certainly bite hard enough to rowl in a way that told us for sure that he would not allow anyone to point anything at him

Old Scotch saved us many a step and earned his keep h the day Then we kept our raze Next et the calves and he would He wouldn't get the horses nor the other cows-only the milk-pen calves

After we ate breakfast and did thechores and were ready to harness the horses for plowing, ould send Old Scotch after the horses and he would get only the horses, no cows nor calves In the afternoon ould tell hi only the cows, no horses

When we called our dog, we didn't say, ”Here, Scotch! Here, here, here” The e used wasn't ”here,” it was ”how” And no matter how far away he was, he would co enough to et the direction from which the call ca nor trotting, but loping And he didn't stop a few steps away nor lower his head and ears, nor did he approach with his tail down He bounced right up beside us, full of life and gusto as if to ask, ”Oh boy! What kind of excitement do you have planned forto see a two-car family in the 1970's, but ere a two-car faht a Big Six seven-passenger Buick touring car Old Scotch knew that Buick by sound Uncle Robert had a Little Six Buick that sounded alnize the sound of those Buicks a half- the road, Old Scotch would pay no attention to theht him not to chase cars But when either of those Buicks careet it a quarter-mile away He also accepted Robert as a personal friend as well as a friend to our family

Then one day Old Scotch didn't come e called hione nor why Of course, we kept hoping that some day he would return But days beca By this tiain