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Well, (laughing1 it became kind of grisly and macabre,·
because he wouldn't die. They'd take him out and he'd be
alive, and they'd stick him under the next tent, and this
went on for several tents. He got worse and worse, so
nobody could face Oscar, so one of the men who was working·
there took him home and shot him, and had his pelt for many
years afterward.
He was a good ... between three and four feet long, fast
on his feet -- when he wasn't hibernating and all groggy he
could really streak.

SL: Did he ever endanger anybody? Did he ever seem a. threat?

SRL: No, he just wanted attention from Mr. Yunkin.

SL: You didn't look like food to him.

SRL: (Laughing) No, but Mother was concerned about the toddlers,
and anything else. He was known to catch a rabbit
occasionally,· so.· ..

SL: I should think he'd have-been quite a threat in the orchard
for people trying to steal oranges.

SRL: He stayed pretty close to the pond.

SL: What about the other pets around here?·

SRL: Well, we always had lots of dogs, a herd of dogs, and we
each had our own dogs.
They all got along.well except once in a great while
there'd be a huge blow-up. One time I remember it happened
underneath the dining rooi table and everybody left and all
the chairs were knocked _over backwards (laughing).
We had chickens, and we had ducks, and of course we
inherited the peacocks from the del.Valles. They were
·indigenous here by then.

CT: Do you still have them?

SRL: No.

CT: Did they just die off?

SRL: Yes.

SL: They're·so noisy; you have to really want them.

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