This photograph of my old "Nugget" dog appeared in the March/April, 1973 issue of "Bloodlines", in ol' Jake Wilder's column. Anybody but me remember those days and what the "pit bull fancy" was like back then? It was a very different situation. Nobody knew what a pit bull was, nobody cared, and that was just the way I liked it. Nugget looked a lot like my Mom's old dog, Petey, didn't he? Do you know that when I got Nugget I had never seen a picture of Petey! Some coincidence, all things considered, wasn't it?

Anyway, this was my old dog, Nugget, who was with me for years. I've met very few people who I've thought as highly of as I did of this great, old dog. I miss him still and I probably always will. Well, at least I can say that I knew what a great dog he was all the time I had him, and we enjoyed every minute of those 14 years we had together. Nugget was strength, loyalty and devotion "Caninified". Even my childhood friends still talk about Nugget as being one of the best dogs they've ever known.

Oh, well. "C'est la vie."

Hey! Do you want to see something funny? On October 21st, 1996, my older son came up from the basement with an old copy of "Gulliver's Travels" that he wanted to read for school. The book had been mine as a kid, and although I still had it, it hadn't been opened in years. So Alex opened the book and a note from my mother to me popped out. My mother has been gone for some years now and Nugget has been gone for eleven or twelve years.

I was a pretty busy guy toward the end of the time I owned Nugget. I did a lot of traveling during the time I was a professional archaeologist and when I was away, my Mom would mind Nugget for me. She would take great care of him as she and my father loved the dog as much as I did, but she had a tendency to spoil him. Here's the note I just found. It had apparently been written upon my return from one trip or another. Mom wrote:

"Carl: In the morning give Nugget a lot of the spaghetti I boiled tonight (which is in the refrigerator in the white & Mexican design bowl with handle.) Add kidney & kidney water. I boiled the spaghetti for him as it was getting old. You could warm it a little in kidney. If too dry, add tomato sauce."

HAH! Those two were really funny and I miss them both!