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The pet set: Texans have always doted on their animal pals, from Bob Wills''s donkey to a fat cat that favored oysters and cream. (on Texana).

Article Excerpt
WE WENT A BIT WILD LAST MONTH, when we discussed the delights and drawbacks of adopting scaly, fangy, and otherwise feral pets directly from the arms of Mother Nature. Now let's rein in our beastly impulses and address a tamer subject: domesticated breeds and the pet peeves, pet names, and other petty matters relating thereto.

Pet-loving Texans have always thought outside the (litter) box. The young Bob Wills, for instance, had a donkey. Rancher's wife Mary Ann Goodnight, given three chickens as a gift, chose to befriend rather than befry them; they followed her around as she did her chores. When philanthropist Ima Hogg and her three brothers were children, their father, Governor James Hogg, bought them a Shetland pony named Dainty, which was famous for dumping riders onto the ground. I can't help but wonder if ultimately the genteel Miss Ima didn't get back at Dainty. I say this because Shetland ponies are about as pleasant as paper cuts, and one of them once provoked me to do something mean. When my siblings and I would visit our grandparents in Bay City during the summer, they'd often take us into Houston for the day, to the zoo, the park, a movie--or Kiddie Wonderland, a battered amusement parkette on South Main that boasted a few motheaten Shetland ponies. I always seemed to get an especially surly poop-colored critter that snapped at me throughout the entire ride. One summer, when I was...

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