When the next door neighbor’s Boston terrier had a single puppy, he brought it over to show the Wilsons, who lived at Dexter at the time. Doris and Dale were home and fell in love with it right away. “It’s not a purebred so we’re going to sell it,” Joe said. “You wouldn’t want to buy it, would you?” “How much?” “Two dollars.” “Two dollars! Let’s ask Mom.” “Well, he sure is a cute pup,” she said, “but you’ll have to ask your dad.” Clabe said no. It would cost too much to feed it. Doris began to cry. So did Dale. “Okay, okay. I can’t stand for big kids to cry.” Clabe suggested a deal. “If you can get the dog for a dollar, you can have it.” The neighbor accepted the dollar, and the Wilsons had a new family pet. They made a bed for him on the back porch, where he always greeted his family. Danny was in junior high that fall and got home from school first. The pup was so glad to see him that he leaped right into his arms. One day Mrs. Wilt was visiting with Leora when Danny reached home. They watched him hug the dog and even give it a kiss. Mrs. Wilt glanced at Leora. “Isn’t that sweet?” Darlene wrote her brothers in the Navy (Delbert and Donald) all about school, and about the cutest puppy “a foot long and as round as a barrel. We can’t get a name to suit him. If you have any suggestions, let’s have them. He’s kind of a light brindle with a white spot on his head, two front white paws, and the black paws just have the tips of white.” Delbert came up with the name “Spats.” He and Donald had played in their uncles’ uniforms from the world war, which included spats that covered a soldier’s insteps and ankles. According to ten-year-old Junior, “Spats is the best dog in the country–he’s the smartest dog, too.”
Spats liked to go along with Clabe and his sons when they went hunting. When the family moved to the Minburn farm with the family in 1939, their pet moved as well. When they carried Fig Newtons to snack on, they discovered that Spats liked them as well, so they always had some along.
In their letters home from military service, the Wilson brothers often asked how Spats was.
After all their sons were serving in WWII, Clabe and Leora bought an acreage near Perry. After Junior was killed, oldest brother Delbert and his family moved home to be with his grieving parents. The Clabe died in late 1946.
Leora spent part of 1947 with her mother in Omaha. The very last mention of Spats was in a note from Delbert’s wife Evelyn to Leora in December 1947. “Spats has gone.”
We’ll never know what happened to the family’s favorite pet.