Dogs I Have Known II

Sam had been gone a few weeks when, on a trip to Kelowna to do laundry, Paul Nowell saw a notice pinned on the wall that some Malamute cross pups were available. We went to an orchard in E. Kelowna where under the porch of a pickers' shack there indeed was a litter of roly-poly husky looking pups. We picked out a cute sable-coloured female and took her home. She was saddled with the northern name of Tuktoyuktuk or just Tuk Tuk for short.

Tuk Tuk proved to be an amazingly easy going farm dog who travelled well in the back of the Beetle and was just a plain good companion. She vocalized a bit like Malamutes do but she never barked. We didn't know that she could until we moved to White Rock when Tuk was three or four years of age and I had climbed out of reach on "the" rock, when to everybody's surprise, she barked. Tuk travelled with us everywhere - back and forth to Vancouver; trips around the province; and on our honeymoon to Newfoundland - all in the back seat of the Beetle, often hemmed in by boxes or luggage.

Tuk learned to fish on the shore of Okanagan Lake when we lived in the Postill's orchard and would sometimes immerse her head completely and come out with a Kokanee delicately held in her teeth. She did the same trick with Oolachon on the Fraser River, right under the present Port Mann Bridge. Placid and easy going though she was, Tuk could not abide porcupines. Whether it was a feud born of generations or whether she somehow found them obnoxious to her sensibilities, she continued to come home with a muzzle full of quills. There is nothing more humble than a dog who has taken a bite of porcupine. You can just read it in their eyes, "Shit, I forgot about this part". Tuk had been our constant companion for a few years when daughter Erin was born. As the baby consumed more and more of our time, Tuk one day refused to have anything to do with us, instead just lay down with her face in a corner. This pout only lasted a little while and Tuk became quite lenient in allowing a toddler to prod, poke and pull.

Just prior to Tuk passing away at age sixteen, we heard of another litter of Husky cross pups and Betty came home with another sable coloured female which we named Suki. This dog was like Tuk in colour only. In temperament she was like anything but placid. She talked that Husky talk in full sentences. When anybody came over that she had bonded to she would squeal. She didn't travel with us much because she was a non-stop back-seat driver and that was hard to take. When Suki was still young we had Satu and Howard's dog Robbie staying with us for awhile. The two of them became great friends and would often lie nose to nose or do that doggie tug of war on a work sock. We would have to be alert though, if Robbie prevailed, that sock could disappear down his throat like a noodle in a Japanese noodle shop.

Of all our dogs, Suki displayed traits of the wild. When she ran in unknown territory, she kept her head high and continually glanced over her shoulder. She had that feral, coyote look about her. Suki had some weird genetic memory because she went bananas when lamb was being cooked. She ran about holding her nose high in the air even onto her hind legs and howled. She just refused to settle down. In a former life she must have lived in Britain during the war. Some people react the same way about mutton.

Our friend Baxter came to stay at about a year of age. He belonged to daughter Erin but she broke an ankle and couldn't run around after a young dog. Baxter was a Turkish Akbash and Husky cross. The cross showed in his ears that didn't stand up like a Husky's or didn't hang down like an Akbash's but stuck out sideways and flapped up and down when he loped along. And he had a very peculiar gait which gobbled up ground in a hurry. Like a moose, he would move both front and rear legs on one side at the same time, and of course this just made his sideways ears just bounce more.

All of our dogs had that doggie personality. You know how you can see it on their face - happy, sad, ashamed, oops. Baxter had that too but when he was extremely happy to see you, he would curl up one side of his lip into a snaggle-toothed smile and squint his eyes. Baxter had more mannerisms than any of the others too. He had learned to ring a jingle bell on the door when asking out and quickly learned that as we were getting up anyway, we might as well detour by the treat bucket. He would butt our leg for a noogie or back into us for a butt scritch. Baxter would hoist a hip onto the couch and watch tv and he would watch a whole hour if there were dogs and other four-legged animals on the tube.

Akbash (white head in Turkish) dogs are raised with sheep and goats as guardians of the flock and as such have been bred to be independent thinkers. Baxter obeyed commands but delayed just enough to let me know that it was really his idea. They have also been bred to not chase so any kind of fetch game just didn't work. I think his greatest joy was out in field of tall grass through which he would just naturally quarter and put pheasants, grouse, and quail to flight. After a successful birding, he would give that huge smile. It meant "wasn't that great" or "didya see that".

All of our dogs had that understated doggie humour that has kept us laughing all these years. That must have prolonged our lives somewhat. They have always given more than they have gotten. We get to be friends with a handful of dogs in our longer lifetimes but they generally stick to one family. Baxter got old and too tired to carry on. Good bye old friend.

Life Events

I first spotted my lovely wife in the library at SFU in the fall of 1965 but didn't really summon the nerve to ask her on a date until after New Years in 1966. In my defense, the fall was terribly hectic anyway. Making the naive transition from high school to university was an eye-opening experience and then my fall was spent playing football as my tuition was paid by an athletic scholarship. I didn't have much time for anything else until after the season.

I had of course noticed Betty right away bustling about our study area in the library. Short skirt, long legs, effervescent personality - certainly caught my attention. When I first engineered a meeting, under some pretext, it was starting to verge on stalking as I just couldn't think of a smooth way to do it. I drove a '56 Consul, so a pick up in a hot car was out of the question. Did she even follow football? She was seen hanging about with another football player. Hmmm.

Some of the more mature ball players, who had gone to other universities, had rented a heritage house near Deer Lake in Burnaby to serve as a fraternity house so a natural first date was to one of their dances. Betty wore a short, sleeveless dress of a turquoisy satiny material. Yowser. I've forgotten what I wore but no doubt I was blinded by my date. And I still am.

Quite a few dates and years followed before we were married and raised kids and did all those things that make successful families. Through it all my date continued to smile and tickle my funny bone. Now she is turning 65 and we increasingly wonder where the years have gone. We have weathered a bit on the outside but we still laugh at each others jokes and bicker about stupid things, but I still see that young girl that I spotted in the library. Every day in the intervening years I have been thankful that this beautiful, bright and funny woman chose me to hang out with. I love you Betty. Happy Birthday.