Trixie

^{Page edited 10-Feb-22. MT}

Source: Edward Ellsworth Laughlin (In his own words.)

Trixie was a ratter. She was a brave and fierce fighter. She was a toy Fox Terrier, mostly white, with a cropped tail and black and tan about her face and ears. Most every farmer then had a ratter. They were important working dogs. We needed to keep the rats out of the granaries.

Trixie hated rats. She ran them out of the barns and out-buildings. She would go under anything and drag them out. She got bitten many times, and that just made her more furious with them. When she was bitten, she would shake the life out of them in her anger. She did a fine job and was quite proud.

Trixie did not like to have big dogs in her territory. One day I will always remember, a neighbor's German Shepherd came nosing around the place and she launched a fierce attack. The much bigger dog fought back. He grabbed her and shook her but she bit his ears, which surprised him. As he dropped her, his teeth caught her thigh. He tore a large three-corner tear of skin and the flap fell open, leaving a triangle of bare, raw flesh.

I chased the other dog away with a stick and carried poor bleeding Trixie to the house to Mom (Mabel Anne Tapscott). Mom cleaned the wound while I held Trixie as still as I could. Mom then poured horse liniment on the wound.

Mom said that we needed to sew the flap of skin back in place. She got out a needle and stout white thread. Mom sewed poor shaking Trixie back together, with no anesthetic at all! But Trixie didn't fight the treatment much at all. She seemed to know that we were trying to help.

The wound healed nicely, but she always had that scar on her left hip. Mom was a great doctor!

For more stories about the Laughlin families, visit Laughlin Family Stories.