[speaker001:] sure I have a Springer Spaniel and her name is Thumper she's about seven or eight years old
[speaker002:] okay do you have any hm
[speaker001:] I got her for Christmas from my family and uh back when we lived in Nebraska I like to hunt and uh so I thought that if I had a good hunting dog like Thumper that boy I could just go out and get all kinds of game yeah except we live in Plano Texas now so
[speaker002:] did it work no right I um I had a for many years I had a dog that was part Springer Spaniel I just love them her name was Molly but she isn't alive anymore we had her for hm fifteen years I think my family did and just loved her she was the greatest greatest um went through two generations of children in my family and was always very gentle
[speaker001:] do you have a pet now
[speaker002:] yeah I have a cat now he just turned seven also and he's I um got him in Arizona and when I used to live there and he is huge he is eighteen pounds
[speaker001:] oh what kind of cat is it
[speaker002:] just um I got him he was um he was born in the wild like in a in a shed
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and had never been in a building when I got him so he and he's he he must be part cross part with some kind of desert animal because he's very long and lanky but he's a very tame spoiled house cat you know now that I've had him for seven years
[speaker001:] being born outside you didn't have any problems house training them
[speaker002:] no no he's yeah he's great and uh he's uh he's really spoiled though so but he's
[speaker001:] that's good
[speaker002:] really big so lots of times he it he seems to get in fights and when he was younger I think he started them and now I think he barely makes it I think he gets beat up even though he's big because he's
[speaker001:] sure
[speaker002:] pretty much overweight and comes home with a few scratches now and then yeah
[speaker001:] and older well we went to a uh cat show at the Plano Center here in town and uh we thought that we have a cat now but we thought well if we ever get another cat you know we'd want something kind of unique so we kind of looked around and they had everything from hairless cats to Siamese cats and Persian cats and we sort of fell in love with the uh Maine Coon cats
[speaker002:] oh I've seen them I
[speaker001:] they're huge
[speaker002:] yeah I have seen them they um weren't they they were actually I can't remember they were used to be used on ships and in for for mousers you know so they're very nautical too
[speaker001:] oh I'll be darned I didn't know that
[speaker002:] yeah I just uh I think I'm I think I'm being accurate in the in the area of folklore but I'm not sure
[speaker001:] well that's interesting we kind of like well my family didn't necessarily like like them as much as I did but the Manx is that the one that doesn't have a tail it sort of has a bob tail I kind of like that too but
[speaker002:] yeah yeah yeah I'd love to go to a cat show I'm real like a real cat lover I'd have a lot more cats if my boyfriend would let us let me he doesn't really like mine let alone another one so
[speaker001:] well I'll tell you an interesting story about how I got my dog and then I suppose our five minutes will be up huh I uh
[speaker002:] yeah okay
[speaker001:] work for a university and I went to uh Omaha Nebraska to recruit students and I had some time off in the afternoon so I went to a a pet shop and I saw these little Springer Spaniels and so I decided well you know this would really be a nice dog to have so when I got back home to Carney Nebraska
[speaker002:] hm
[speaker001:] I told my wife about it and I said you know this is just a I I I can just hear the dog crying for me now and and Christmas is coming up hint hint and so
[speaker002:] I know what you mean
[speaker001:] I had to go back the next week as well as a bunch of other people from the university and one of the people uh that we went with uh they were friends of ours and so we uh got to Omaha and I decided I'd take my friend over and show him the dog and so I got over there and she said oh that's too bad the dog has already been sold and I didn't realize it but this guy had somehow worked it out so that he got there a little bit earlier bought the dog and she was in the back room and uh so that night we had a reception for some of the uh potential high school students or college students and and uh he had the dog the whole time in his room and and I had no idea and so we headed back to Carney that night and the dog rode in the car and we stopped along the way and had a bite to eat and they left the dog in the car and I guess while we were inside eating Thumper just tore the heck out of the inside of the car and uh finally we made it back to uh to Carney and