Shelter dogs: stray, unwanted vagabonds, mangy mongrel castoffs that seem to proliferate the world over.
Every animal shelter from Bangkok to Seattle is full of shelter dogs. Worthless waifs: no one wants them.
Hundreds of thousands are put to sleep every year. Why did God make them? Of what worth are they?
Well, Frank thought that shelter dogs had some worth. Yes, Frank liked shelter dogs and seemingly always
had one around. As a matter of fact, Frank especially liked shelter dogs, and for all of the dogs that Frank
would own in his lifetime nearly every one of them would be adopted from one animal shelter or another.
When it came time for Frank to get himself another dog he always insisted on getting a shelter dog.
Frank would own several shelter dogs, but his favorite dog of all would definitely have to be Higgins.
Higgins came to live with Frank way back in the 1960’s, and lived with Frank for several years thereafter.
Higgins had been adopted from an animal shelter in California. Higgins was a small dog with golden, fluffy
hair. Higgins was a very cute dog, but he was much more: he was extremely smart. Higgins made a big
impression on Frank – so much so that when Higgins managed to sire a litter of pups Frank decided to keep
one of them. Among Higgins’ progeny was a small female, one of the few dogs that Frank ever owned that
had not been a shelter dog. Ironically enough, after Higgins’ passed away Frank decided to give the
daughter the same name that her father had.
Higgins was impressive for a mutt, and he managed to make many friends in his lifetime. Among Higgins'
friends were Ed, and Arnold, and Cynthia, and many others.
Higgins’ daughter would eventually pass away, and since there were no more progeny of Higgins, Frank
returned to acquiring his dogs from animal shelters. Frank insisted that he would only have a shelter dog.
Frank also continued the habit of giving each dog he adopted the same name!
It is not known exactly how many, but Frank would eventually adopt several dogs, all from animal shelters,
and all would be given the same name. A couple of Frank’s dogs were adopted from shelters right here in
Mississippi. Yes, even Mississippi has its share of shelter dogs.
I know that Frank comes across as quite the eccentric, but in reality Frank was no eccentric. Oh it is true
that Frank gave all of this dogs the same name, and it is true that he would insist that Higgins and Arnold’s
ashes be buried with his own ashes after he passed away, but I would not be one to call him eccentric. I
would not even consider Frank to be eccentric even after learning that Arnold was …, well, Arnold was a
pig!
Arnold the pig. You know Arnold Ziffel from the T. V. show Green Acres, don’t you? And what of Higgins’
friend Ed? Edgar Buchanan was a dentist turned actor, who played the part of “Uncle Joe Carson,” on the
T. V. show Petticoat Junction. During the filming and making of the show, Edgar Buchanan and Higgins
became very good friends off the set. Cynthia was Mr. Haney’s Bassett Hound, on whom Arnold once
played a practical joke.
And who was this dog named Higgins? Higgins played the part of the little dog that occasionally appeared
on Petticoat Junction – the little dog with no name. Yes, Higgins was that little dog that was simply referred
to as “dog.”
Yes, Higgins was a dog, and played the part of a dog known only as “dog,” but Higgins played another part
in another television series. Higgins, along with all the other dogs mentioned as having the same name
were among the many animals trained by Frank Inn, used in Hollywood during the 60’s and 70’s. Frank
insisted that the only dog that could play the special role originally filled by Higgins should be a shelter dog,
and except for the one instance of Higgins’ daughter playing that role, every dog that played that particular
role was a shelter dog.
Yep. Perhaps the most popular T. V. animal of the 70’s and 80’s was not just one but a series of shelter
dogs, the original dog’s name being Higgins. Frank discovered that shelter dogs are among the smartest,
the most loyal, and the easiest to train dogs there are. No, there would be no designer dogs for the
starring roles Frank had planned. No, instead of choosing from among the delicately pampered pure
breeds that your every day ordinary Hollywood type would want, Frank insisted that the only type of dog that
would ever play the role for which he specially trained his dogs would be one of those unwanted, unloved,
uncared for shelter dogs.
And so it was. The original of that line of mangy, flea-bitten, wanton waifs who would become among the
most recognizable and popular of his breed and who had the name of Higgins, would have his name
changed to …, Benji.
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