This is Suki. This is the dog my family had when I was a kid in the 70's. My father believed he was picking up a black lab puppy when my grandfather told him about the litter. Why he picked a black and TAN longhaired pup is beyond me, but he probably felt he was there, he should just come home with a puppy.
These were the days long before genetic tests, and Suki was just your average mutt. If I had to guess, I would say she had German Shepherd, Collie, and some sort of retriever in her. She actually looks very much like an English Shepherd, but I doubt there were very many of those running around in the suburban MA area back then. My parents gave her a great name (they spelled it Sukie but for some reason I always thought of her name as having no "e" on the end). Given that our other pets' names tended to the ordinary (Mittens below for example) it was cool having a dog with a different name.
She was a great family dog. She followed and played with us kids all the time. She lived back in the day when dogs just ran around the neighborhood, you knew them like you knew the neighbor kids. Not that it didn't come with problems. She got hit by a car, ran around and lost her leg cast, killed chickens, rolled in DEAD things, and even got caught up in a fox hunt. Rolling in fox scent and being chased by beagles and people on horseback probably was not fun for her, but as we witnessed it out of our living room window one Sunday morning, it remains one of the funniest moments in my life.
Suki was only with us a short time, but she was an influence in my decision to have dogs and how they play a part in my life. Thanks Dad and Mom for getting us that little black lab!
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