Lassie was my mother's dog. I don't remember if my father bought her for my mom or if my mother's parents did? But Lassie came along with my folks when they first came out to California in 1954. Other members of the Aldrich family had already moved out here from Providence, Rhode Island. My parents had been living in Woonsocket, a mill town where my mother grew up. They decided to take a trip to California and see what it was like. Sometime in the winter of 54-55, I was conceived in California. In the summer, my parents and Lassie returned to Woonsocket and in September I was born. A few months later, my parents, me, and Lassie made the trip back to California. Lassie stayed with us for awhile, but eventually she was returned to the custody of my grandparents. When Lassie got older, my grandfather would carry her down the stairs each morning and place her in the shade where she would lay all day. I had just come home from elementary school when my mother got the phone call that Lassie had died. My mother was speaking French on the phone and I couldn't understand her. I figured out someone had died and I thought from all the female pronouns that it might be my grandmother. But when my mother said something about putting someone "to sleep," I realized the subject wasn't human. Lassie was a good dog. She was pretty too. My mom loved her a lot.
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