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Friday 13 March 2020

Cuddly Pets in the Picture - Sepia Saturday

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt photograph shows a lovely hairy dog cuddled by two girls, c.1920  - and there is no shortage of  pets getting in the picture with  my extended family. 

To begin with - three vintage photographs of my cousin's family:



 Here Joseph Prince Oldham, with his wife Mary Alice Knowles with their son John William and daughters  Sarah, Edith  and youngest Beatrice + of course their family pet.  The Oldham family were carters and coal merchants in Blackpool, Lancashire.

Young Elsie Oldham, daughter of John, above. 


William Hooker and his wife Winifred with their five children + pet.


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 The prompt photograph has its caption "Three Beauties - and here are other Beauties.  



Our daughter was 5 years old and Crufts Dog Championships Show was on television - how could we resist that combination. The result by the summer 1978  was that Beauty a golden cocker spaniel became part of the family.


Another Beauty, an Alsatian,  was around 40 years earlier - here with my husband's grandmother Alice White, nee Armitage and her granddaughter Maureen, c.1940.


 

 
It was a sad time when we lost our Beauty at the age of nine, and we said we would not go through that again. But surreptitious we were all looking at adverts in the newspaper.   The result was a newq pet - a blue roan cocker spaniel - Coleen.
 




Colleen getting in the picture with my parents.  


Colleen died suddenly at seven years old at a time when there were other stresses in the family. We could not imagine family life without a dog and that had to be a cocker spaniel. So within a few months we had puppy Casmir (Cass) - an orange roan cocker - she had such a distinctive colouring, she became well known around our small town and lived to the grand age of 13.  I always felt that if Cass starred in a Disney cartoon, she would be the Princess.   Judge for yourself here!




Having  a dog means going out in all weathers,  and here in Britain we don't  let a bit of bad weather stop us.
A wet and windy crossing to the Isle of Mull
with all other passengers sheltering below deck.  
 Braving the elements on a windy day on Mull.


And if you don't ave the real thing, there is always a toy dog to take for a walk.


Granddaughter pulling her little toy dog. 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share 
their family history and memories through photographs.





 
Click HERE to discover other furry cuddly friends  featured on bloggers' posts

8 comments:

  1. I absolutely love that your ancestors loved their dogs enough to include them in formal portraits! I would say a dog in a photo taken a century or more ago was an honored and beloved pet, indeed.

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  2. Excellent collection of dogs that were part of your family! Note: there wasn't a link at SS to your blog, just your comment!

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    1. Thank you, Barbara, for your comment. I felt sure I had added the link, but somehow it got lost - and I never knew until I saw your message. Added now.

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  3. What a great collection of handsome beautiful family dogs. Of course I'm familiar with pictures of Cass and indeed, she would have been a Disney princess for sure! And I recognized, immediately, what ferry you were on! Been there, done that! :) Speaking of pets: Shakespeare just this morning for the first time, chattered out "Good Morning". I laughed. I've been saying that to him every morning for 2 1/2 years and he just finally came up with it? I wonder what's next? :)

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  4. I think you win best match of the weekend for quality and quantity! It's interesting to see the vintage dog breeds that families chose for a pet.

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  5. Love your pictures Sue, and love all dogs. We have collie-crosses, such clever dogs, one of them is a cross between a border collie and a springer spaniel, she's 17 years and 6 months old, slowing down but still going strong. Long may we have her :-)

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  6. I was never a dog person until we started looking after our son's dog. I'm not giving him back unless really pressed to do so. Thanks for sharing the pics.

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  7. I come from a non-pet family. My sister had goldfish - not cuddly at all.

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