chihuahuas – It's All About Family

Yesterday, I took a trip down memory lane of the people I researched and wrote about this past year. I’m proud of the information I found, stories I wrote, and living relatives I uncovered during my search. Here’s a review month by month….

January

I started the year with a couple of posts from the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge by Amy Johnson Crow. The first topic was “In the Beginning,” and I chose to write about my parents’ courtship and wedding. I had fun going through old photos of them from their wedding and trips with my aunt and uncle. Ancestry provided the high school yearbook pages and my mom’s collection of postcards showed us the sweetness in their relationship.

The second post was “Favorite Photo.” My favorite photo will always be the Posluszny Family photo that started this crazy research journey! I think it is in every post I wrote about the family this year. It’s probably time to frame it and put it on a wall.

The third post in January told the story of my great-uncle John Posluszny. At the end of December 2024, I wrote about solving the “mystery” of his death in 1942, so I really wanted to start my Posluszny series with his story. I connected with his granddaughter, Janine, in 2012, and she shared the photos of her father, Stanley with me. I enjoyed finding and sharing the newspaper articles with her. I currently have a message out to a great-granddaughter of John and hope I hear from her to make another family connection.

February

On the 1st of February, I wrote about my mother’s diagnosis of brain cancer. Even 38 years later, memories were fresh.

Next up was a little break from family with a post about a sampler completed in 1817 and found by my father in the attic of his paint store in the early 1980s. He held on to it always curious about where it came from. Unfortunately, I didn’t think about researching it until after he passed away in 2010. I still haven’t delivered it to the Portland Historical Society!

Another great uncle, Joseph Posluszny, was my next subject. I can hear to this day my Aunt Judy saying, “Uncle Joe Post”. I’ve worked with his great granddaughter on Ancestry for many years and the majority of pictures I have came from her. In September, I was contacted by one of Joseph’s granddaughters who lives in Connecticut about 45 minutes away. I look forward to getting to know her better and hearing her stories!

This post was born during my Posluszny research when I noticed, after 15 years of research, that my great grandmother, Caroline Straub is listed on the 1910 census as having given birth to 14 children with 8 of them at the time still living! I headed over to the amazing Geneteka website, started searching, and managed to find the records for five children who died either at birth or a very young age.

March

Early in March we said goodbye to our sweet chihuahua, Wally and late in March was the anniversary of my dad’s passing.

April

The 98th anniversary of my grandmother’s passing was in early April and if you don’t know her story, you can read it here.

I wrote about my great uncle Frank Posluszny. He was a tough one over the years to find anything about because he was in a mental institution from the 1930 federal census to the 1940 census. I had very little information on the family and wasn’t sure where to look. But as the years go by, more information becomes available and I was able to find his great-granddaughter! We emailed back and forth and she actually knew him! She sent pictures which I included in his story.

*Josephine, Frank, and Mildred Poslushny*

May

I spent May working on my great uncle Charles Posluszny’s story. I posted once to check in to say I was working on him and at the end of the month, completed it. Once again, there are grandchildren and great grandchildren alive, but in this case, I don’t have a way to contact them.

June

June was busy with visiting relatives and a trip to Chicago so there were no posts in June.

July

In July I wrote about the sisters in the Posluszny family, Mary Posluszny Biega, and Elizabeth Posluszny Laçź. One who was well known and the other who disappeared without a trace.

August

I finally made it to the last of the Posluszny children, Walter Bonk, son of Caroline Straub and her second husband John Bonk. I knew all of his children and his grandchildren.

My second post was the result of a stranger’s request on Ancestry looking for “living relatives of Alfred Donroe”. He was my cousin in law’s father and he died in World War II. This person in France is working with citizens of Gouesnou France to create a permanent memorial to the soldiers and civilians who died there. I received a comment on there from my younger cousin, and we had a nice email conversation. He and his wife plan to go to France to see the monument.

September

The last quarter of the year I focused on my maternal grandfather and his family. Their lives were so entwined for many so years, that the first story takes you from Jacob and Katherine’s arrival in the United States through 1916. This was Part 1.

October

Engram Family Part 2 took place from 1916 through the 1930s. I became acquainted with a second cousin a few years ago and he sent a slew of family pictures. I also began searching on Newspapers(dot)com using family member’s names where I found Kitty and Louise playing basketball!

Later in the month, I wrote about Theresa, Katherine, and Louise from the 1930s through their lives. My half aunt Joanne shared photos with me as well as few letters Katherine wrote to Theresa’s daughter Irene. I’m grateful to Joanne for the information and the years of emails back and forth. I saved them all and finally printed them out and put them in order. I was overwhelmed by the amount of information that suddenly made sense!

November

Five posts in November! First up was the lives of Elizabeth and Hannah. Elizabeth had an interesting situation which deserved a post to explain it. It’s amazing what a person can find when they look hard enough, and have help from strangers on Ancestry! Thanks to Newspaper(dot)com again, I discovered a third cousin living about 20 minutes away!

In time for Veterans Day, I shared a post from June 2024 called The Effects of War about my grandfathers in World War I, and uncles in World War II.

Then it was back to the Engram Family with Jacob Sr.’s story. I wish I knew more about him!

My cousin, Brian, messaged me pictures of a letter Jacob Jr. wrote to his sister Theresa. The war was over and he was waiting to go home. When Brian and I got together during Thanksgiving week, we sifted through all the Engram pictures and letters and there were more letters from Jacob to his sisters. They were very interesting to read.

December

I wrapped the year up with a re-post of December 7, 1941, the story of my Uncle Walt during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

I rounded out the Engram family with the final story of my grandfather Jacob Jr. I learned so much about him from my Aunt Joanne’s emails that again, didn’t make sense until it was time to write his story.

And here we are – the end of the year! I’ve signed up again for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge and I will be looking through my family tree for new ancestors to tell you about!

Happy New Year!

Tuesday, with the assistance of Beloved Companions, we ushered our dog, Wally, over the Rainbow Bridge. His health was failing over the last two months and Mark and I decided (finally) that it was time to let him go.

Let me tell you the story of Wally…

It was May 2012, and our 14 year old cat, Chuckie Finster Benson passed away. I’m not even a fan of dogs, but I started looking at adoption and shelter sites, and commenting or sharing their pictures. People started asking me when I was going to get a dog. There was no turning back!

One afternoon, July 27th to be exact, I took a trip to the Meriden Humane Society and said, “I want to look at small dogs”. A worker brought me outside to the dogs in their cages. I took pictures of 5 or 6 dogs all eager and excited to see me and show off how fetching they were. Except for one. A black and brown and white chihuahua / terrier mix. He just would not look me in the eye!

I went home and showed Mark, Cody, and Emily the pictures. Guess which dog they wanted to visit? Wally!

We picked a day for everyone to visit. They brought Wally out on a leash and we all hovered over him, petting and admiring him.

*Wally giving the best performance of his life*

The deal was done! We had ourselves a dog. The shelter didn’t know his actual age but put it at 2 or 3 years old. His back story was – he was “found” by a woman in Wallingford who brought him to the Meriden shelter claiming that the Wallingford one was closed. So they named him Wally. It’s not a nickname for my town that I will EVER use, but it worked him.

We brought Wally home a few days later. It’s not quite the level of bringing home a baby, but still pretty scary!

He immediately latched onto Mark as his favorite person. He had a lot of love for my daughter in law Emily, and my niece Jessie. He merely tolerated me because he would probably sense I was not totally comfortable around dogs (childhood trauma from neighborhood German Shepard) but we managed to co-exist.

He didn’t tolerate affection. Scratch his head a few times, but watch for the lip curl, followed by the growl! Always watch his face! He was happy to curl up next to you in a chair, but don’t try to move! He’s be growling if you tried to shift position. The running joke over the years when people came to visit was “don’t pet the dog!” Or, “just ignore him”. You just didn’t know his expiration period for petting.

It was a great situation for us because our business’s office was the room over our garage. Wally would come to work with us and hang out in his bed, eating treats in abundance and having his play yard nearby. Of course, there was always time for play inside too!

A friend who owns an animal rescue farm in Bethany can communicate with animals and as a fund raiser will meet with owners and their pets. Of course, we brought Wally to visit her! We learned his original owner was short like me and was very cruel. She thought he would be a “pocketbook pet” that she could carry around – but she got that wrong! Wally “told” Kathleen that he felt like part of the family at Christmas. He showed her people’s legs and food, and wrapping paper. It only made us love him more. But, alas, he told her I tried too hard! I just wanted him to love me!

We were blessed that our brother in law owns a dog kennel and in the early years he would go there when we traveled. He got such great care there! But as he got older, we had a dog sitter come and stay with him. I did enjoy having someone stay in my home while we were away.

Wally had the run of our back yard. Although it’s not fenced in, he never made a run for it. Only once when he was young and chasing a squirrel. But after that, he never even went in the front yard. Most of the neighbors had fences so we benefited from them. His “friend” Enzo, lived on the other side of one of the fences. And they would run back and forth barking like crazy and then Wally would suddenly stop and walk away like he couldn’t be bothered. He was so funny to watch.

Wally stopped going up the stairs to our bedroom a year or so ago after he tumbled down them. They are steep and they probably looked like Mt. Everest to him! He was content to sleep in one of his two beds. He managed the few stairs from the yard to the back door but 6 months ago, we built a ramp for him to get up and down. He gave up his walks through the backyard and did his business on the gravel.

In his last few months, he slept more throughout the day but continued to eat heartily, poop and pee, and stand directly behind us when we were in the kitchen. He still had his 2 beds (one in the front living room, one in the family room), and he’d be in one at night and the other when we came downstairs in the morning.

It became obvious a few weeks ago that he was not doing well, but how do you make that decision?! Why, oh why couldn’t he do it for us? We called Beloved Companions in New Britain CT and they arranged for a mobile veterinarian to come to our home to guide Wally over the Rainbow Bridge.

On Tuesday, March 5th, Dr. Melissa with Co-Pilot Veterinary Care arrived and we knew we couldn’t be in better hands than hers. She was kind and respectful, and explained the process to us. For those who know Wally, my husband put a blanket over Wally to pick him up so she could administer the sedative. When he was groggy, we put him in his (3rd) bed in the sun at the sliding door where he would stand when he heard our cars pull in the driveway. I sat by his head and petted him throughout the process. After his final shot, it was five minutes or so before he passed.

Melissa took him back with her to Beloved Companions for his cremation and we picked him up the next day.

Wally was never an active dog in his time here. He’d run around outside but he didn’t play with toys and even my husband could only play with him so long before he’d give the lip curl and give a “grrrr”, like he’s saying “ok done!”. But he’s gone. I have more time in the morning since I’m no longer, replacing pee pads and making breakfast, but it’s because he’s gone.

There is something that kept my spirit up in the last two months…. Remember my friend who communicated with him shortly after we got him? I have a cousin of a cousin who is also intuitive who lives in a house at the rescue farm and she has taught him how to communicate as well.

In January, I was attending a psychic/wellness event at my cousin’s studio and Craig was there. As we talked, he asked me out of nowhere, if I still had my dog. He had never met Wally and has never been to my home. During our conversation, he told me Wally knew he could be an ass, and he knew he was loved. Wally said he was going to come back and he would be MY dog, loving me the way he loved Mark all these years. He said his original owner would hit him (in the face), and she got rid of him because he wasn’t the “pocketbook pet” she got him for. Craig said he had some time before he departed (but I knew it would be sooner). I carried those words with me through the final month and they gave me peace.

After Wally passed, I contacted Craig to thank him for his words when we met. His response was:
“glad to help. He says he’s okay. Wagging his tail. He understands the decision you made. Was fine with it, he was ready”. “He keeps talking about getting butt scratches.” In our first conversation, Wally told him the type of dog he would be when he came back but Craig didn’t want to tell me. He said it will happen and I will just know this is my dog. When I know, you’ll know!

Tag: chihuahuas

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