When they’d pull up to the mail box, she’d come running out from under the pool deck pretending to chase after something. Probably a squirrel. She somehow knew that dogs were supposed to keep guard of the house and keep rodents away. She took after her daddy, I think. Calm and gentle most of the time, but would get real serious when she needed to. You didn’t really know what she was thinking half the time because of how stoic she was. I remember when we got them other dogs, she was not happy. She changed. She knew that they were suddenly more important than her. She kept more quiet most the time, but overall seemed more on edge. She especially didn’t like Parker, hardly anyone did. Emmie was fine most of the time, but she started actually killing rodents rather than just chasing them off. Their dad kept voicing concerns about them killing cats, or worse. Even Shelby started killing. She had never done nothing like that before. One time, back by the plum trees, there was something happening. All three of them were growling and making horrible noises, screeching, sounded like something from a horror movie. Once the folks got over there, they saw what was making that horrible noise and why. They’d gotten a raccoon. Later that week it was just back to Shelby. The other dogs had posed too much a risk of rabies, and were a bad influence on her. They taught her how to get outside of the fence, had her killing animals, and overall just made her more on edge. She still wasn’t the same. Even more stoic than before, she lived quite quietly after they left. One thing she never forgot was how her Mama would pat the bench that squeaked so loud each time it was hit, she’d come from wherever she was and lay down on that bench. She was taught because in the middle of the night, she’d start barking at something beyond her fence. Probably an owl or something. So Mama would pat the bench and holler out, “Chellllll-burrrrrr,” to which she’d come running and lay down quietly and go to bed on that bench.