How many of you have a dog that played basketball?  Our Irish Setter did!  Here is that story...

Our Irish Setter Kelly was the first four-legged child to join our family. The timing was not exactly perfect, but just like two legged children the timing is not always what we would ideally choose.

My husband and I had worked and saved our money for a down-payment on what was to be our very first home. We had chosen the lot, the floor-plan, and everything from the bricks on the exterior to colors of tile and carpeting on the inside.

We were so excited at the thought of becoming home owners!

Each lot in the entire subdivision would be fenced and so when an Irish Setter puppy was offered to my parents (who were great animal lovers) to enable finding a good home for the little tyke, they called us.

This was a long distance discussion as we lived in Houston and they lived in McAllen, Texas at the time. They realized that they might have to keep the puppy for a little while until our new home was finished, so everything was agreed upon.

We were to become new parents!

New parents and new home owners!

One day we received a letter from our new little puppy that we had already named Kelly. Smart little guy! He could already compose letters!

This is the letter he wrote to us...

August 8, 1973

Dear Mommy and Daddy,

I have heard so much about you and can hardly wait to go live with you. Grandma and Grandpa are very nice, and they take good care of me, but they have two big dogs and I know they like them better than me. I have tried to be very good, but sometimes it is just too hard. I do sleep all night tho and I don't even cry.

Grandpa took these pictures of me but he said they are not very good because I didn't stand still. And one turned out too dark. The side view picture is more like my true color.

Last Sunday Grandma took me in swimming. I showed her that I am a good swimmer, but I really didn't like it much because they have such a large pool, and I'm not even nine weeks old.

They have a little girl here at the house and I really would like to play with her, but every time I bite her on her feet she cries and her mommy won't let me play anymore.

I hope you like the way I look. I can hardly wait to see you. I will love you very much and will always try to be very good.

Love and kisses,

Kelly

The day finally arrived when after making weekend trips to our new home-site and finding one mistake after another, we made the decision that we were going to back out of the contract. This was not done lightly.

We had chosen a beautiful wooded lot only to drive out one weekend and find most of the trees ploughed down and burned. That was heart-breaking, but did not squelch the deal.

On a final inspection we noted something like 23 things wrong with the house. Major things! Ceiling beams were going the wrong way! Two bricks at the top of one side of the garage door became three bricks towards the bottom as the house was obviously built very much out of plumb. A corner cabinet under the sink was sealed off. The list went on and on.........

All this time we were getting updates about the progress being made by Kelly, our new family member whom we had not yet personally met.

So although it would not be easy, we decided the day had come to make a trip to the Valley and pick him up. He would simply have to adjust to living in an upstairs apartment until we could once again find another home for the three of us.

The first time Kelly had ever had a leash put on him was when we were going to put him in the car to drive from McAllen back up to Houston.

He pulled and bucked like bucking bronco! We wondered how in the world this was ever going to work but by the first rest stop, he started walking as though he had been born with a leash attached to his collar.

Of course, my parents did not yet know this. When they saw Kelly's reaction to the leash (knowing that he would not yet have a yard of his own in which to run and play) they almost asked to keep him. They, as well as their dogs, had become attached to the little guy!

You can probably tell from the photos that Kelly was an active dog filled to the brim with energy. This is typical about Irish Setters which we were to discover. They are also extremely friendly and intelligent.

We regularly walked him and found several nearby spots where we could turn him loose so that he could run off some of that boundless energy.

Left to his own devices when we were at work or elsewhere, the only thing that he did of a naughty nature was to tear up anything made of paper. Newspapers and magazines became his toys to toss around and shred. We quickly learned to pick up all paper items within his reach when we would leave the apartment.

We will never forget coming in one evening after a nice dinner to find Kelly happily laying in what looked like left-over confetti from a massive New Year's Eve party. We had forgotten to pick up the periodicals as we generally did before leaving the apartment. He looked so happy with his performance that we did not have the heart to scold him. After all...we had forgotten to pick up these things that were off limits.

In the photo showing Kelly playing basketball with his Daddy, we were at that time living in a townhouse.

As we would be walking Kelly we would hear kids saying to one another...Look! That's the dog that plays basketball!

There was a court near our townhouse and my husband would regularly go out to practice sinking some balls. Kelly loved accompanying him and would become a part of the action as the photo readily shows.

We actually had kids knock on our door and ask whether Kelly could come out and play!

Our next move took us to Wisconsin. My husband had accepted a transfer and Kelly, for the first time, got to see and play in the snow. We also had a half-acre lot and had the back part fenced. Kelly loved it! He could now run and play without a leash almost anytime he wished.

He would get excited when my husband would don his winter clothes with insulated gloves and they would go out in the back yard and box with one another. This was one of his favorite games. Kelly still had oodles of energy and this kept him happily engaged on those long winter days. He seemed to understand that he was not to play as rough with me.

While in Wisconsin we decided that he could use another four legged pal and Kerri, a little mixed breed joined our happy family.

From the very first moment, Kelly seemed to love her and they became the best of pals.

As a matter of fact, Kerri was to grow up and become a feisty little member of the family that ruled the roost with regard to Kelly and the dogs that would join our family after her.

Kelly now had an additional family member with which to frolic and play. Irish setters take around two years to fully mature and a growing puppy kept him entertained and happy. They became inseparable buddies and our family now numbered four.

Kelly was larger than the average Irish Setter. He was taller, big chested and weighed about 95 pounds.

As soon as he became full grown he developed an interesting habit.

He would sit on sofas with his feet on the floor just as he was used to seeing it done by us and others.

That always seemed to surprise people.

Whenever we had a group of invited guests in our home, Kelly was always an integral part of the party. If there was a vacant spot on the sofa, he would settle in and look from one person to another as though he was following the conversation.

He loved people!

We vividly remember and still laugh about the time we had some guests for dinner from the home office. Everyone knew that we were animal lovers and many of them were also.

Every available seat was taken and filled by people. The president of the company for which my husband worked was down on the floor playing with Kelly.

Suddenly one gentleman got up to go to the restroom. The seat on the sofa next to his wife suddenly became vacant. She was probably the only person in the room not fond of dogs.

Can you guess the rest?

Kelly immediately grabbed that chance to sit on the sofa next to her. Not only did he sit there, but he...being the friendly sort of fellow that he was...kept inching over to her and was just about sitting on her lap by the time her husband returned. He was just trying his best to be friendly!

Everyone in the room was laughing...with one exception. But she took it in good humor considering the circumstances.

Kelly lived a good and long life.

He was a great big majestic soul who enriched our lives greatly.

Intelligent, fun loving, energetic and loving were all descriptions that aptly fit that beautiful red canine first born "child" of ours.

Kelly had such cute ways about him and people from many years ago still remember and talk about him.

While I would never recommend getting an Irish Setter if one lives in an apartment, it worked out in our case. But we did as much as we could to keep him exercised and engaged. And it was not long before he had a huge yard of his own in which to run and play.

Irish Setters, from our experience, are a great dog breed. They are typically loving and friendly. While they might not all play basketball like our Kelly did, they will be sure to keep you entertained and smiling through the years.