Favorite Family Stories about the Dog named Jiggs

This is the story of the dog Jiggs. The favorite stories start with how he came to live with his family...

My grandparents on my mother's side of the family had three children.

Their eldest child was my Uncle Al. My Aunt Marge was the middle child and my mother was the caboose in the family. There was a range of seven years between them from oldest to youngest.

Uncle Al (or Bud, short for Buddy as he was called back then) had a paper route. On several occasions it had happened that stray dogs would follow him home.

My grandparents had just found a home for the last stray dog when the brindle colored dog who became fondly known as Jiggs followed Uncle Bud home one day.

He was not the best looking dog on the planet. In fact, his looks rather scared my Aunt Marge until she got to know him better.

Jiggs was sleeping behind a sofa in the living room when my grandfather got home from work. Looking around he exclaimed, "Good! You finally got rid of that dog!"

Just then Jiggs got up, stretched and proceeded to walk around to the front of the sofa where my grandfather spotted him. "Oh no! Another one!"

This initiated and evolved into a love affair between dog and family which impacted each of their lives and tales of Jigg's escapades have been told in family lore ever since.

Jiggs endears himself to one and all...

As you can tell from some of these photos, Jiggs rode along on my mother's bike and loved the ride. My mother also loved his company.

Jiggs also would ride down snow covered hills on a sled with the kids and endeared himself to the kids by pulling the sled back up the hill. He was as excited as his sled-mates to ride back down the hill over and over again.

They could dress him up and he would pose for any number of photos........glasses on his face......corn cob pipe in his mouth, etc.

My grandparents lived in the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin but also had a summer cottage on Okauchee Lake. Of course Jiggs accompanied them whether in the city or country.

Washington Park was behind the house in the city and the squirrels in that park as well as the ones in the country gave Jiggs lots of exercise. He chased and treed many of them and that was one of his fun more solitary games.

Another activity was trying to catch ducks called "Hell Divers" in the lake. Jiggs was a good swimmer but when he would get anywhere close to the ducks, they would dive down and come up some distance away. Jiggs would spot them, change direction and keep swimming. On occasion, afraid that he would exhaust himself and drown, some family members would actually get in a boat and go out to haul Jiggs back in to shore.

He loved to swim and watching "his people" go up the ladder to the pier, Jiggs started following in their footsteps. Most dogs would simply have swum to the shore and gotten out of the lake that way. But not Jiggs!

My grandmother taught him all the usual tricks which he loved to perform. Shaking hands, turning around, sitting up and playing dead were in his repertoire.

One game that he loved to play was when he was given a ball in the end of a stocking and there was company in the room. Jiggs would start spinning around and the ball followed him in an arch as he went around faster and faster. The shrieks of laughter as the ball would hit people's legs just encouraged him to keep the game going for a longer period of time. It got so that whenever there was a room full of company Jiggs would beg for the stocking with the ball in it so that he could start his twirling game.

One time in the city Jiggs was hit by a bus and one of his front legs was broken.

Paying a vet was out of the question. This was post Depression time. So my grandfather got gauze and plaster of paris and made a cast for Jigg's leg. Not wanting to make it too tight, the first one fell off almost immediately. Another one was made and stayed on as intended.

Jiggs leg healed but was never quite the same. It didn't slow him down any!

When he was recuperating, they let him have an old baby bed which they put in the middle of the kitchen. Long after Jiggs leg had healed, that bed became his personal possession and it became a fixture in the kitchen. The airplane down on the floor by the bed was one of Jigg's favorite toys.

During the summer, my grandfather would go into Milwaukee to go to work for the day returning to the lake cottage in the evenings. Jiggs faithfully awaited his arrival at the top of the hill. If Grandpa was held up and was late, Jiggs began howling. The neighbors always knew if my grandfather was running a bit late as the howling reverberated across the water.

Jiggs lived a good, long and happy life. He was such a great companion to each family member and I am sure that each person has their own special memories.

All I know is that I have heard stories about Jiggs ever since I was a little girl. The picture of him wearing the glasses has been hanging in all of my parent's homes and now it is in our home.

I grew up with dogs and other pets but my mother (to this day) claims that Jiggs was the smartest and most faithful dog that she has ever known.

The family lore regarding Jiggs is something that lives on in stories and memories..........those that are real and experienced first hand..........and those that have been created by the telling and retelling of tales.

Jiggs may now reside beneath the grounds of his favorite summer spot at the lake, but his spirit survives and this brindle colored big hearted dog's story continues to live.