Tippy changed quite a bit after we moved to Irvine’s. He became quite grown up and was away much of the time. Sometimes he would be gone for several days and he was always a mess when he got home. He would have bites and scratches all over. His ears got big rips in them and boy would he smell.  Each time while he was getting better he just wanted to be left alone but after he started to feel better I would wake up in the mornings and find him sleeping beside me. After he got healed up and rested he would be off again. I never really understood why he wanted to do something that hurt that much.

  Looking back I would have to say these were the best years of my life. I was still pretty young, I had a great home, my days were as full as I wanted them to be; life was good.

  All together we lived around Pender Harbour for about four years I guess; I had almost forgotten about the ‘moving’ word when one day there was much excitement in the house, we were moving to some place called Port Hardy.

  Then the excitement toned down, it seemed that Senior would be going ahead and we would follow later. Later turned out to be quite a while. But eventually the time came and Mom and John packed everything back up again, this time taking even more care than the other times. Then one day all the boxes and furniture were moved down to the big wharf and we went down to wait for the arrival of the boat.

  John was upset about leaving all his friends and when Tippy never showed up to be put in a crate made for him he got really upset. However the boat came, once again I was put into a crate and raised then lowered into that dark hole. The one good thing was that I was surrounded by things I knew.

  This trip was quite different than all the others.

  The next day everything was unloaded off the boat we were on and put into a big building, then a few hours moved again out onto a dock then into another boat. My crate was moved to a separate area from the furniture, sort of walled off from everything else, I could tell other dogs had been here before me.  However my only companion this time was what I later found out to be a pig. It was a lousy traveling partner as it squealed continuously and we couldn’t talk to each other.

  The boat trip seemed to last forever (actually it was three full days), John and Mom came down to visit me and bring food several times, there was one crewman that brought me some tasty bones every day, he would always visit for a few minutes as well. Every time I could feel and hear the boat docking I thought we had arrived but it wasn’t until that third day we finally arrived at our destination.

  Senior was there to meet us and he was obviously as glad to see us, as we were to see him. Some of the small boxes, suitcases and a few other things were loaded into the back of a truck then all four of us climbed in the front and headed for our new home.

  We drove off the wharf and through what to me looked like a pretty big town and in a few minutes turned off the road onto a smaller road that wound through a forested area. Very shortly we came out into a clearing and at the foot of a short hill were two houses. The one closest to the beach turned out to be ours.

  I heard Senior saying that everything from where we turned off to the beach was ours. That made me feel pretty important, as now I would be responsible for guarding it all. The rest of the day my people spent getting the rest of our belongings and moving them into our new house. My old house had been left behind but right at the back door was a brand new house and it had a wonderful bed of fresh straw in it.

  While they were all busy I explored around but made sure I checked back at the new house every so often.

  I got wind of a rabbit in what would prove to be the garden area; I tracked him over to a fence that ran along the edge of our clearing. I then wandered along the fence and found an opening into the next yard. I followed along the path that led away from the fence and in just a short distance came up to a large old house. There I found an old but huge dog lying on the verandah. He wasn’t as big as Colonel but he was big.  He was sound asleep so I just sort of got up close to have a look. I decided to give him a gentle wake up call so I gave a quiet bark, he didn’t stir; so I barked a little louder, he still didn’t stir. This kind of puzzled me so I went back down the two steps and sat down to figure this out.

 Finally he opened one eye and then the other, and then struggled up onto his feet; right away I could tell he was quite old so I got to my feet and gave another little bark. He must have heard me as he looked about but until I moved he didn’t see me. I was poised to run but he just shook himself and in my head I heard him say. “Who are you, where did you come from?”

  Hey this was neat, this was how Colonel and I used to talk. I told him that I had just moved next door and that my name was Jerry.

  “Hmm.” He thought. “Well hello little neighbor, my name is Major. You are welcome just as long as you mind your own business and let me mind mine.” 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.