Get along little…? Can you fill in the blank correctly?
Call it a pet peeve. Call it overly sensitive. Call it OCD. Call it anything you like, but twice in a week I’ve seen this quoted, or something similar, and both times the above line has been finished with “doggie.”
Incorrect!
Most people quote it as yippee ki yi yay, get along little doggie, which is doubly incorrect.
The original lyrics were:
Whoppee ti yi yo, get along little dogie.
Now, I realize spell check probably doesn’t like this word, and it is from a different era, out on the range. But dogie is cowboy slang for a motherless calf in a herd.
A doggie is a creature of the canine variety.
The lyrics to this cowboy ballad were first published in John Lomax’s Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads. It has been performed by many different people and groups including: Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter, Charlie Daniel, The Kingston Trio, and Sons of the Pioneers.
So, unless you’re herding dogs, the word to use here is dogie.
I smell lunch cooking, so this little dogie is gonna go eat.
Get along little dogies! Talk to you later.
Mellie's Books 