THE 50th CARNIVAL OF GENEALOGY : FAMILY PETS

Welcome to the 50th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy!
This edition we're sharing stories and pictures of the beloved
pets that have become part of our families. We have 29
authors and 30 stories, and I think when you read them
you'll find as I did that some of our pets shared characteristics,
such as the uncanny ability to find their way home across long
distances or the fear of thunderstorms.

All of them claimed a place in our hearts.



First, David Bowles over at Writing the Westward Sagas
tells us about his friend and companion Lulubelle with "Whos'
Training Who?" David's post confirms my suspicions that
we're the ones being trained!


Then visit Robert Lord's "Pets in Our Family History" at
Lord and Lady for a poignant story about an incident
during the Depression that shows how people helped each
other out in those hard times and how Robert got the only
pet he had during his childhood.

Chery Kinnick's mom grew up on a farm in Minnesota and
Chery shares family photos of pets and farm animals in
"Animal Friends on the Johnson Farm." She also tells us
about how one of the farmhands taught her mother and
some cousins manners by using their pet dog. I don't know if
I like how he did it very much, though! See for yourself over
at Chery's Nordic Blue blog.


Our first story about feline friends comes from Donna
Pointkouski of What's Past is Prologue who tells about
Lou C., Tigger and Stanley in "Cats Ruled This Family".
Some of the things they did made me grin and reminded me
of the cats we had in our family!


For many of us our dogs and cats are more than just friends.
Wendy Littrell at All My Branches Genealogy writes of her
"Furry and Feathered Family Members-Carnival of
Genealogy". Her stories show just how much a part of our
family our pets become, a tradition carried on in her family
now by Oreo.


CoG founder Jasia tells us about her friend Penela Pooh Pooh
Penela Cougar Poober Penn Noonie Poop, aka "Pennie the
Wonder Dog" over at Creative Gene. Jasia had to overcome
her Mom's dislike of pets to get her dream dog but it was
definitely worth it. I related to this story because like Jasia
I wanted a collie when I was a kid. Check out that great
photo tribute to Pennie, too. Jasia also contributes a story
about a family's pet crow in "A Most Unusual Pet".

One of the other things I've enjoyed about the entries for
this edition of the CoG is the names of the pets. Susan J.
Edminster writ"es about her family's dog, "Beans", at her
Echo Hill Ancestors Weblog and tells us about his favorite
game: tug-of-war !

Janice Brown has some great photos of pets from various
generations of her family in her post "Pets in My Family Tree"
at Cow Hampshire. Her present dog, "Ladie Di" is a real cutie.


Sharon Klein at her Genealogy has some stories of family
dogs as well in "Our Four-Legged Family Members". She
mentions that one of her dogs, Whiskers, was afraid of
thunderstorms, which as I've mentioned seems to be a fear
some other geneablogger's pets shared.


We head north to Canada next for M. Diane Rogers'
CanadaGenealogy, or Jane's Your Aunt. She writes in
"Carnival of Genealogy-Family Pets" of how her family
preferred cats to dogs and a reason why her Dad wouldn't
eat chickens!


Janet Iles doesn't own any pets of her own but her parents
did as children as her pictures in "Pets-Carnival of Genealogy"
show at Janet the Researcher.

Jewelgirl of Searching for Family Branches is another cat
lover and doesn't believe that superstition about black cats as
the pictures prove in "Beloved Pets-50th CoG".


Laura at The Virtual Dime Museum has a unique entry
about her granduncle Charlie and a cat in "Charlie Doctors
The Cat".


Becky Wiseman talks about "Buster, Rover, and Bootsie" at
Kinnexions. I think her Bootsie wins the prize for the most
unusual "trophy"brought home to show the humans!


Ken Spangler's "Rocky the Hound Dog" was another dog afraid
of thunder and that fear led to a remarkable feat. Read about
Rocky at Beyond Fiction.


Next up is Terry Thornton at Hill Country of Monroe County,
Mississippi. Terry's a cat person as he attests in "One little,
two little, three little kittens... " and his present companion is
the well named Hattie La Rue Thornton!


Terry also sent along a "guest column" by Johnie Sugg West
about "Bo Diddle", who was a feist, a breed of small hunting
dogs. The story of how Bo protected his family is a moving one.
Thanks for sending it in, Terry!


Jessica Oswalt of Jessica's Genejournal recently posted
about her two dogs Ben and Casey who are Schnauzer/Terrier
mixes and tells us more in "They May Look Cute...". Are they
named after the tv character, I wonder?


John Newmark of Transylvania Dutch had six pets: three
dogs and three...well, read his post "Pet Sounds" to find out
what they were and their names.



Then swing by Thomas MacEntee's Destination: Austin
Family to read "Minyo and Princess: A Clown and A Doll".
Like myself, Thomas doesn't have any pets in his life right
now but he has great memories of two unique dogs.


The footnoteMaven posed for a photograph as a child on
her noble steed and tell us more about the horse in "Daughter
of Lone Ranger-Make That Little Abner!" That was one pet
I always wanted, but I couldn't quite figure out how we could
get it up the stairs to our third floor apartment! I'm envious,
ftM!


Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is in the cat lover's column
and his recollection of the cats he's known and loved shows
why in the post "Rootie Toot Toot, Lickety Split, Softie and
Squash/Mira". Great names, Randy, for some great cats!


Amanda Erikson over at Random Ramblings contributes the
story of her pet rabbit in "My Little Munchkin" . Munchkin
certainly sounds much smarter than any of the rabbits I've
owned or cared for when I was younger.


Most families choose what pet they will take into their hearts
but sometimes the animal makes the choice for us. Steve
Danko at Steve's Genealogy Blog tells about how Smoky the
black cat became "The Family Cat" for the Dankos.


At Looking4Ancestors Kathryn Lake Hogan remembers
Specs, "The Dog Who Could Tell Time" and who also had
quite a bit of skill in dealing with locks.


Elizabeth O' Neal is allergic to cats but that hasn't stopped her
from always having some other sort of pet around! See some
pictures of the furry members of her family in "Creatures
Great and Small(Mostly Small)" at Little Bytes of Life.


Lori Thornton's home now from her visit to the Boston area,
including "Qwin-zee", just in time to tell us about the cats
and dogs in her life and includes a picture of her cat Brumley.
I imagine he's very glad to see Lori is back home. See the
picture of him in "Pets" at Lori's Smokey Mountain Family
Historian.

Lori's story prompted Chris Dunham of The Genealogue to
post "When Pets get Political." He didn't enter it for the CoG
but it's short and unique, so I'm including it!

Craig Manson's mother was no fan of cats, but gradually was
won over by the cat that was named "Top Cat" after the
television cartoon character. TC more than lived up to the
name and you can read how over at Craig's GeneaBlogie


Finally, some guy named Bill West of West in New England
tells stories about the canine characters his family owned,
especially the dog named Brownie in "The Family Pets1:
Brownie"

Thanks to all our contributors for sharing their pets with us!

And now it's time for the call for submissions to the 51st Edition
of the Carnival of Genealogy from Jasia:

"The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be: Independent Spirit. With the upcoming July 4th holiday, there is no more perfect time to honor someone from your family whose life can be summed up in one word – INDEPENDENT! Do you have a relative who was feisty, spoke their own mind, was a bit of a free spirit? Anyone who most people might consider a “nut” on the family tree but you know they really just followed a “different tune?” We all have at least one person whose character and habits may have made them seem “ahead of their time” and now is the chance to tell us their story. The host for the next edition of the COG will be the very free spirited, Thomas MacEntee. Thanks T!

The deadline for submissions will be July 1st."

Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of
Genealogy using our carnival submission form. Past posts and
future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

I hope you've all enjoyed this 50th Edition of the
Carnival of Genealogy.