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the following dawg stories are dedicated to my friend, a great Vet, a family man,a great supporter of Savannah's Saint Patrick's Day Celebration and most importantly a TRUE DAWG;
Dr. Patrick Andrew Bremer: November 10, 1955 - March 4, 2012
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Ponie Red Dixon
"The First Boxer"
Christmas Eve, the family has eaten dinner, the kids are in bed, Mom and Dad smile and look at the wiggling package under the tree. Inside that package is a bundle of joy, excitement, unconditional love, slobber and four paws big enough for an adult horse. And in just a few more hours that package will be running and bouncing all over the house, furniture and all. Scenes such as this unfold all over America on birthdays, anniversaries or most any other special day in ones life.
Christmas 1966, Ponie Red Dixon arrived and for the next 13 years she ruled the roost. While technically intended to be a gift for my older brother, he was 3, Ponie was a family dawg...and yet she always seem to know she was suppose to listen to my brother more than anyone else. Born in November she was 4 days younger than me and somehow decided that it was her duty in life to protect me at all cost; this was obviously the one occasion that she didn't listen to my brother!
A fawn and white boxer referred to by the other kids in the neighborhood as "that big bulldog", she was born the runt of her litter. As she grew she turned out to be rather large for the breed with two major health issues that actually made her more unique than anything. Due to a type of skin cancer Ponie lost most of her hair; and while that may have affected her self esteem it was the gum disease causing her to loose her teeth that was probably the worst part. I should note here that while it was most likely uncomfortable for her to be toothless, it was kinda funny. A dawg, a boxer at that, with no teeth. She could gum ya to death!
Ponie refused to wrestle with me I assume because she thought she would hurt me as she was growing up much faster than I; but that did not mean she didn't like a good rumble with some of the other neighborhood dawgs. And the bigger the better. No teeth? No problem! Ponie was a true boxer and could terrorize her opponent with a flurry of "punches". Midnight, the solid black German Sheppard that lived down the street, was no exception. On more than one occasion these two went at each other with such aggression that it was actually scary. Funny, the things one remembers about their first dawg.
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| yes, we had style... |
Ponie was indeed family. She went on ALL family vacations and lives were planned and organized around her. She slept at the foot of my brother's bed, more or less on his feet. She entered and exited our fenced in yard via the gate just like the rest of us, even when it was closed. She chased the ducks at Lake Norman, North Carolina and had as much room as anyone in the family station wagon. She was the family protector and could smell up a room better than anyone. She was our dawg.
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Boxers, currently the 6th or 7th most popular breed in America, depending on which report you read, are strong short haired dogs who were once docked and cropped. Docked is the clipping of the tail while cropped is shaping of the ears. Today most boxers are only docked. Ponie and Brandie where both docked and cropped as you can see by the photos here. There are varying views on both of these practices and I'll leave this up to the reader to form their own opinion.
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| Brandie Dixon READY TO ROCK! |
Brandie, the second boxer, joined the family a year or two later. She was beautiful. Great color, great markings and a strong muscular look. Brandie loved ice. Open the freezer, and there she was. Unlike Ponie, Brandie had her teeth and she enjoyed nothing more than chomping on a cube of ice.
Standing up on her hind legs to beg for a piece of ice was not an uncommon scene in the family kitchen although there was some dispute among the family as to whether it was "cuter" to watch her sit up and beg or "cooler" for her to stand up on her hind legs.
I was a fan of the cool approach to ice begging.
Brandie had a tendency to dart out of the house and be gone for hours. Many an afternoon was spent chasing her through the neighborhood once she slipped through an open door. Her normal path was to bolt out the kitchen door, head straight out the driveway across the street and up the neighbor's drive. Once there, she would either turn left or right running behind the houses; we were the only house at that time who had a fenced in yard. We of course would then start chasing after her, only we had no idea which way she had gone. We would see her cross the street a few houses down and by the time we got there she would be seen crossing back over the street at the opposite end from where we last saw her. I think she did this just to entertain herself; watching us run up and down and side to side looking for her. It never occurred to us to split up and wait on her.
It was this tendency to dart out into the street however, that ultimately took Brandie from us. Having survived the first of two collisions with a car, head on no less, the second time proved to be fatal. Some dawgs just need to run. Run she did.
Ponie Red Dixon and Brandie Dixon are buried next to each other in Pet Haven Cemetery, Macon, GA. Two great dawgs.
as always,
bkd
Unfortunately I could not find a video or scripted line of the greatest dawg joke of all time; so I will tell it as it was told to me, embellishments and all.
The late, great Lewis Grizzard once said something to this effect:
"I remember goin to one um dem dar Gawga games wit
my two friends Bubba and Earl. They didn't know much
bout Georgia Football and apparently even less bout
dem dar dawgs!
Once we got to our seats I excused myself to go get us
some dawgs (hot dogs) and a coke. (yes everything in
Georgia is called Coke).
While I was gone, the pregame show began and the Red Coats
and Cheer Leaders worked the crowd into a great frinzy. At one
point the head cheerleader walked the most recognized college mascot
of all time onto the field where he, in all his glory, sat down on the
fifty yard line and, as any dawg would.....
He DID what any dawg would.
He licked himself.
Now this is where the story gets interesting.
As you may recall, Bubba and Earl were watching the pregame
with great intensity...as any fan would....
Yeah! Whatever!
Anyway, Bubba notices the great UGA doin his thing
and in a moment of jealousy says:
"I wish I could do that!"
too which Earl responds,
"Damn Bubba! Don't you know that DAWG would bite you!"
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and that my friends is the greatest DAWG joke ever!
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Godspeed Dr. B! After all, all good dawgs go to heaven!
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