Week 18 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks project is all about pets. The challenge, created by genealogist Amy Johnson Crow, supplies a different prompt each week for exploring our families. This week’s prompt is pets.
We never had a dog when I was growing up. I’m not complaining; I’m really not a dog person. We had a couple of rabbits, and the occasional gerbil or fish. And we had two of those little turtles that aren’t supposed to be sold anymore.
We were told we couldn’t have a dog because my mom didn’t like them. In fact, she was never much for pets at all. So I was surprised as a child to learn that my mother did have a dog when she was growing up, a dog named Tippy.
Until recently, I’d never seen a photo of Tippy. But a few months ago, my mother gave me a pile of old family photographs — including one of her as a small child, sitting with my grandmother. That’s Tippy lying at their feet. And if you look carefully, you can see that my mother is holding a smaller dog, Tippy’s pup.
My mother is still not much of a pet person — and in particular, she is not a dog person. But she clearly made an exception for Tippy.
The Petrini Page 