June 23rd

25c - sunny but cloud moving in
Not much to comment on as I have been laid up for the last couple of days with this back/hip. Seems better today. With several days of sun I'll have to do some watering in the yard. Two of the bird feeders are empty again. They usually empty them in about 24 hours so I try and stagger their refill days. I think I've mentioned it before, when the seed is gone , the birds are gone. They have loyalty only to their little stomachs.

He lay back down again, groaning as he did.

  I thought to myself ‘well a little grumpy but not too bad for an old fellow, I think we’ll get along just fine’.

  He already appeared to be asleep again so I just turned and went home.

  It was a couple days later when I heard John say to Senior, “Hey Dad isn’t it funny, we used to have a Colonel next door and now we have a Major. They both laughed but I never did see what was funny about that.

 CHAPTER 9

I

 really liked Port Hardy; my personal kingdom was quite large, and as it bordered onto Major’s area I really had a great deal of forest to roam in and I could claim it all except for the area where Major might wander a bit.

  I also had the whole beach on both sides of me for quite a distance, there was one other dog over a couple of properties towards town, he looked a lot like me except he had reddish blonde hair, the first time he came out to or at least appeared to challenge me I just let him know there was a new dog in town. He was a bit of a sissy and he never bothered me again.

  Later I expanded my territory all the way to town. I got along well with everyone and the only place I avoided was the wharf where a couple of Springer Spaniels had established territorial rights.  That little bit wasn’t worth arguing about.

  John’s school was just past where our driveway turned off the main road, so visiting there was quite easy.  However he didn’t seem to have much time for me when he was at school, so I usually just made a brief stop then would head out on my own. There were not as many grouse as there were at Pender Harbour, but there were lots of squirrels and then there was always that elusive rabbit, so between the rabbit and the squirrels and frequent trips into town my days were pretty full.

  I occasionally went through the fence to check on Major, he finally conceded a spot to me on a step just below where he liked to lay. Grudgingly he told me a bit of his story. He had been brought here as a very small pup and it was his understanding that he was half wolf. I didn’t know what that meant and he wasn’t too sure either. When he was younger he would go out to what he called ‘camp’ and put in a few weeks each time. But he really liked being close to his lady (strangely her name was Mom also) and after a while it became his full time job to look after her. But now he was tired and couldn’t see or hear too well. One day he actually hinted that he was glad I was there to keep an eye on things.

  One day when I went to visit Major he wasn’t there. He had disappeared. I noticed that his humans were quite gloomy for a while and for a few days after his disappearance wouldn’t let me come to visit.  Then one day his Mom came over to our yard where I was sitting. She called me to her and said, “You miss your old friend too, don’t you, I’m sorry I’ve been mean.” She gave me a treat of ball made of pure meat. “You come and visit us anytime, Jerry.”

  There was a lot more rain at Port Hardy and when it rained all day I was usually invited inside. There were two stoves that I found were great places to just lie and soak up the heat. The one was in the kitchen, it didn’t always smell so good as it burned some kind of smelly liquid but it was close to where all our meals were prepared. The other was in the living room and it burned wood and it could really belt out the heat. Needless to say that was my favorite spot.

  Before I forget Tippy finally caught up to us. From what I could understand he had come home after we had moved and the parents of the kids next door had put him into a crate and shipped him off to us. Somehow though he ended up in his crate for about a week and when he finally arrived he was a real mess! Honestly I never smelt anything so bad! John and Mom gave him a good bath and even though he was a cat he seemed to really enjoy it, mind you he was getting all the attention.

  He was soon back to his old ways although he didn’t seem to wander as far and was home most days. Actually he turned out to be a lot of fun, as we would together go on short rambles around our property.

  Just when everything was going pretty good, Mom went a brought home another cat! Well actually it was a kitten and it was as white as I was black. Neither Tippy nor I were too impressed with this circumstance; other than hurting it our only recourse was to try and ignore it. Well it wasn’t much different than another kitten I recalled. It wouldn’t be ignored; it was either trying to sleep with us or when we were sleeping it would want to play. The only thing I could get away with was the odd growl, but Tippy quite often delivered a lightning fast swat with out being caught.

  In time though we were forced to concede that Patches was now part of the family. He wasn’t very smart that one. We didn’t realize it when he was small but as he got older we could tell that he lacked any aggression and adventurism. But he did get to spend a lot of time in the house and every evening on Mom’s lap. We decided she just felt sorry for him.

  Winter finally arrived that year, it was quite different than any of us were used to, it snowed and it snowed. The two cats didn’t like it so much but I kind of got a kick out of it. Our three humans liked to go out in the early evenings and play like kids, I of course would be included in these romps and afterwards we would all go inside for a goodie or two and to cozy up to the fire. Ahh those were great evenings.

  We lived at Port Hardy for quite a long time, some kids moved in where the sissy dog lived and although John spent quite a bit of time with them, I was always included when they were outside which was most of the time.