When we lived in Eureka with my grandma, I had a mixed collie dog that I named Boots. I couldn’t take him along when we moved to California for my mom’s work, so he stayed in Utah. It only took a short time for him to get into trouble running with a pack of wild dogs that chased sheep. He was shot by the sheriff. I should have taken Boots with us but there wasn’t room in our 1940 Hudson coupe that was packed with all our earthly belongings. We planned to live with my mom’s sister and her family near Los Angeles in their backyard in a small 19 foot trailer with no bathroom or refrigerator. Sharing my aunt’s one bathroom in her small house with her family of four was like camping––just my widowed mom and me in a trailer. Our space was limited with NO room for a dog.
Soon we moved our trailer from my aunt’s backyard to a nearby trailer park. We had a fenced-in area with an attached awning over our patio. In time, I was able to get another pet when we purchased a larger 35 foot mobile home which seemed like a mansion after our small camper. We had our own small bathroom with a tub-shower, toilet and sink all about the size of my grandma’s outhouse back in Utah, except we had hot water and…room for more pets. Think small pets: gold fish, turtles, and later parakeets or love birds. They were considerably less work than a dog or a cat. But no matter how careful I was in taking care of my new pets, it seemed that one of them was always dying. That would call for an elaborate funeral as they needed to be properly buried in our yard. (I certainly hope than I don’t meet all my many childhood pets in the next life.)
California was certainly a different climate than Utah––no snow or separate seasons just sun, fog, rain or overcast weather. Then there was the beach, only a few miles away where you could play in the sand and waves to your heart’s content. In those days, no one warned you about sun tanning and skin cancer. We loved California. Many hours were spent at the beach, but we were always homesick for Utah’s sagebrush and cedar trees also I missed my dog Boots.