Another wagging dog tale

Tobacco plant; Nicotiana

Once you have nicotiana, you''ll always have nicotiana. It's not an addiction like tobacco, it's not evasive like mint, it just comfortable in the garden and happy to be there. It is an tender perennial but most folks consider it a summer annuals. It's like a rescued Labrador Retriever, happy to be feed, happy to be petted and will always be there.

Last year at Red Oak Hollow, I found a lab puppy walking down the road. He was about five months old, black and as sweet as molasses. I was out for a walk and noticed that he was walking along the county road, sniffing for food. When I called to him, he came and then went belly up in a submissive pose. I, of course coaxed him home. We had a big bag of dog food that came with our new mobile home. In Tennessee, you get a 20lb bag of dog food, when you by a new mobile home from Sunshine mobile homes. Sunshine makes mobile homes and dog food.

We had this big bag of dog food and our Sheltie was in California and frankly she was use to getting much better food. We feed the food to the catfish in our ponds, but here was a hungry puppy. Of course, after you feed him and he ate three times, he was more than willing to hang around. He was gentle, loving and a good ole boy.
We named him Clem. We knew we couldn't keep him. We were just visiting our second home, and had to back in a couple of days.

We went around to see if he belonged to anyone or would they keep him. Since this is a college town and rural community, many dogs were dropped off on the mountain. He was probalby gun shy and the hunter didn't want him. I wanted to fly him back with us to California, as my husband rolled his eyes. It wasn't the best plan, because Molly our 12 years old Shelite wasn't feeling well and we knew she was not open to having a large puppy around. After, a dog is ten years old it is hard to introduce another dog into a home. Most older dogs really prefer to be alone, the center of attention. Molly was our princess and we knew the timing of this new dog would be very upsetting to her. She actually passed away about a month later, so we right about the choice.

Anyways ,we found the local dog pound, took Clem there and they called the animal rescue people. I wanted to do more for Clem, but as I was ready to leave Tennessee that Monday morning, I had a phone call that my Mom died and I had to fly to Michigan. Clem did get pushed into the back of my mind.