Daddy and his dogs

Posted on June 15, 2019 by

Lordy, Lordy – my daddy loved his dogs.

Daddy with his bird dog in his lap, his open Bible on the table, 

and his hunting gun leaning in the background

The first and last memories of my daddy always include his love for his dogs, his family, his church and public education; and I’m pretty sure I have those in the right order. He was an outdoorsman, a quail hunter during season so the dogs we had were supposedly purebred pointers, but they never succeeded in the field because they couldn’t get used to the sound of guns since they spent their lives indoors sitting in his lap.

Daddy and his dog Dab watching a Longhorn football game on TV 

Daddy holding Seth while Dab relaxes in his own chair

This is how I remember my daddy – impeccably dressed in coordinated shirt, tie, jacket and slacks on his way to work or to church, but never too busy to say goodbye to one of his dogs.

My daddy, Dr. Glenn L. Morris, died way too young at the age of 51 on June 30, 1976. I remember him on every Father’s Day and all the days in between – still.

Cancer was the culprit for the loss of my father, and yesterday cancer claimed a friend of ours, Consuelo Heath, who also waged a long brave battle against this disease. Pretty and I send our sympathy and love to her wife Lynda Parker. Rest in peace, Consuelo.

Stay tuned.

About Sheila Morris

Sheila Morris is an essayist with humorist tendencies who periodically indulges her desires to write outside her genre by trying to write fiction and poetry. In December, 2017, the University of South Carolina Press published her collection of first-person accounts of a few of the people primarily responsible for the development of LGBTQ organizations in South Carolina. Southern Perspectives on the Queer Movement: Committed to Home will resonate with everyone interested in LGBTQ history in the South during the tumultuous times from the AIDS pandemic to marriage equality. She has published five nonfiction books including two memoirs, an essay compilation and two collections of her favorite blogs from I'll Call It Like I See It. Her first book, Deep in the Heart: A Memoir of Love and Longing received a Golden Crown Literary Society Award in 2008. Her writings have been included in various anthologies - most recently the 2017 Saints and Sinners Literary Magazine. Her latest book, Four Ticket Ride, was released in January, 2019. She is a displaced Texan living in South Carolina with her wife Teresa Williams and their dogs Spike and Charly. Her Texas roots are never far from her thoughts.
This entry was posted in Humor, Lesbian Literary, Life, Personal, photography, politics, racism, Reflections, Slice of Life, sports, The Way Life Is and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

9 Responses to Daddy and his dogs

  1. cindy knoke says:
    June 16, 2019 at 12:18 am

    Your father love for his doggies touches my heart. How wonderful is that! I am so sorry for everyone who cancers steals life from.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  2. Animalcouriers says:
    June 17, 2019 at 4:50 am

    Way too young. You can judge anyone by their love (or lack of) of animals. Your Dad was a good man.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. Sheila Morris says:
    June 17, 2019 at 9:50 am

    I couldn’t agree more about judging anyone by their love for animals. Think DT – who has none, thank goodness.
    My dad was a really good man. You would have liked him.

    Like

    Reply
  4. merrildsmith says:
    June 17, 2019 at 1:51 pm

    I’m sorry for your loss. A lovely tribute to your dad.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. Luanne says:
    June 18, 2019 at 8:17 pm

    Beautiful tribute to your dad, Sheila. I’m sure you take after him in your love of dogs. He sounds like a really wonderful guy.
    And the only place you lost me for a moment here was finding out he was a Longhorns fan. BOOMER SOONER! (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself!)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  6. Charlotte Hoather says:
    June 21, 2019 at 3:50 pm

    A lovely memory of your Dad, sorry to hear of your friend 💕 love and hugs to you xx Charlotte

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.