CURRENT PETS OF SIBLINGS
BOOTS AND GUS, SADIE, BARNEY, VENN
Boots and Gus are the pair of cats that currently live with Norma and Chris. Sadie is Jan and John’s jet black cat. She’s a great accompaniment to Jan’s annual witch costume at Halloween. Barney is Bill and Mary’s uber-mellow dog. Venn is the cat that lives at The 461 and allows humans there to feed her and open the door for her multiple times each day.
CUMMISKEY ANIMALS
FUNNY FACE
According to Claire’s sister, Eileen, the Cummiskey family in Belleville had a cow named Funny Face.
WALL SNAKE
The story here is that Claire’s brother Jim’s family had a pet snake. It escaped its tank and lived for and extended time in the ceiling and walls of the home. I thought I remembered this happening; verified with Eileen. I don’t know what kind of snake it was, does anyone remember?
HORSE WITH A HAT
The photo to the left is of Claire’s maternal grandfather, Mathias, and his horse. Michaela and I have referred to this photo as “horse with hat” for ages. I’ve looked at the photo hundreds of times and I still can’t decide if that horse just left a political convention still wearing his straw boater or if the foliage of the tree somehow makes it appear as such. Maybe a digital artifact in the original scanning? What’s your take?
GOAT (FOR SALE)
As mentioned in previous postings, I’ve gone through many pages of archived editions of the Standard/Standard-Times and I’ve found a few unexpected things there. I suppose this particular item should not seem terribly unusual, but I was surprised by it.
SOME CURRENT PETS OF COUSINS
DASH, YOWZIE, LOKI, “DOG OF THE MONTH”
Dash is Amber and Orran’s cat. I think Dash runs a close second to Venn in the feistiness department. Yowzie is Lowell and Loralei’s cat. Loki is one of Rick and Leanne’s dogs. Sarah has been fostering dogs for a few years now (dog of the month). Her latest foster was Scrappy, but he was placed just last week. Sarah, how many fosters do you figure you’ve housed?
PETS THE SIBLINGS HAD WHILE GROWING UP
SUNSHINE
Sunshine was a white cat with black patches that belonged to Norma or Norma and Karen when they were in their late teens. Like many cats, she found humans fair game for lounging with/on.
HERBIE
Herbie was a robin that lived with us for a few days. I’m not sure I remember the story correctly, but I believe the bird was injured and we (collectively) nursed it back to health. I remember the digging for and feeding of worms part of this in particular. I think that after he had somewhat recovered, he flew off, but seemingly and shockingly into the windshield of a passing car. However, he was found a short time later sitting in a tree in the yard, stunned but ok. Anyone care to correct or add details of Herbie’s stay with us?
WITH THAT BIRD (HERBIE) ON HER SHOULDER
FRECKLES
Freckles was a Dalmatian the siblings had. I was very young, but I do remember her. There is a photo of her somewhere, but I haven’t happened across it in years. She must have been a very tolerant dog; there were lots of kids hanging, stepping, or falling on her all the time.
PETUNIA
I really don’t remember Petunia. I remember there was a Petunia but I don’t remember anything about her other than she was a cat.
19 responses to “January 25, 2025 – Puzzle Discussion”
I got the theme but only two of the answers and that was after refreshing the screen several times to get four more guesses.
Hate to think how many hours you spent going through achieves “The Standard” to find that article.
Just testing.. do you get a notification that someone has replied to your comment? Do you get notification that someone else has commented in general (not to you specifically)? The notifications would be via email.
I got 2 of the categories as my first 2 guesses. Past pets and current pets. I had no clue on the last 2 categories. Regardless it’s always fun to read how they’re connected!
Just testing.. do you get a notification that someone has replied to your comment? Do you get notification that someone else has commented in general (not to you specifically)? The notifications would be via email.
Bill, in the case of the :goat for sale,” Michaela found that one It’s actually not that hard – it’s not like I’m randomly turning pages in old physical copies of the newspaper, it’s digital, online ,and there’s a search engine so I just put in names. That being said, I have found myself reading nearby articles that catch my eye and searching over and over for info on that fire at that place Mom worked at on OB Road.
Norma, I’m glad to hear that you enjoy the end result!
Bill, it’s the random things that I’ve come across – in sources other than the Standard – that have blown me away. For instance finding an article on the Richmond Historical Society written by our grandmother in 1968 was SO COOL.
*Richmond Historical Society WEBSITE
HELPFUL HINT FOR FUTURE PUZZLES: sometimes I only had three 3 items in a group so I invented my FOURTH option (mentioned in this week’s reminder email)… BUT some groups had many more that four items, so you might see them again in a future group/puzzle.
Still didn’t get this. I was on track and knew they were pets but I was thinking dogs, cats and horses! So close!
That picture of you and the bird is so cute! And you look like Cecil!
And how uncomfortable does that couch look, that Grandma is napping on!!!
And I think Scrappy was my 21st foster! But that includes Paddy who we failed with and kept!
That’s a lot of fosters! Good job!
Nancy I do not get notifications when someone adds a response. I just got in occasionally and see what everyone said. I appreciate the work you put into these and have enjoyed learning about the family!
I got the siblings and the past sibling pets. I got the other two by pure luck and only after getting out once and getting back in.
Petunia was a calico cat.
Jan brought Herbie home I believe, he was in the road in front of her.
The later bird in the road was not Herbie, we thought it was Herbie. It fly up when a car drove over him and hit the undercarriage and died. We buried that bird, only to find Herbie up in a tree later chirping because he was hungry. Herbie’s demise was much worse and involved Edgar.
Oh my goodness! I absolutely didn’t remember all this Herbie stuff. I may have blocked out the Edgar part because I seem to remember – now that you say it – something like this happening
I knew it was pets when I saw Sadie and Venn, but thought cats and dogs were going to be two separate categories. Cousins and siblings tripped me up. I love the photo of you with the robin! My friend was looking at my screen when I was looking at it and thinks you look a lot like Abbie in it. And the horse hat made me laugh.
Another hint for future puzzles – groups often are divided by generations BUT not always.
So I look like Cecil and Abbie? I don’t see either but that’s the way it usually goes with these things.
Also – I love that hat/horse pic
I was just telling at the ad for the goat and realized the ad to the right and above is about Zeke’s!
yup