For the Love of Dogs

With Ella

When I started loving dogs

I started loving dogs the moment I was picked up in the Volvo 240 Wagon (to move in with my family).  Mom’s house, AKA “Erin’s House”, had 2 dogs at present: a red Golden Retriever named Katie and a smaller mixed-breed dog named Nicky. 

Why I started loving dogs

Nicky 

When I got to the house the dogs Nicky and Katie came to greet me.  As this picture shows, Nicky spent lots of time with me, and sometimes he slept in the basement room with the piano with me.  On a Sunday drive to Salisbury, New Brunswick, we went to a puppy farm and all sorts of Retrievers and Spaniels gazed at us.  A man led us into the heated basement, and immediately some Retriever puppies of all colors came to greet us and bark and whine  as if to say “Please take me home!”  Our original idea was to JUST LOOK at the puppies…but with the McGraths, there is no such thing as Just Looking at the puppies, because they are irresistible…and so we purchased a puppy…and named him Simon and added him to our pack.  All 3 dogs joined us for our camping trips. 

My most favourite breeds

With Ella

From my adoption day to Grade 8, my favorite breed was, in fact, the Golden Retriever, and I used to watch PBS’ Lamb Chop’s Play Along and there was a live Golden Retriever that looked exactly like Simon.  For Christmas in Grade 7 I got the VHS Homeward Bound which had an old Retriever that looked like Katie, who had passed away shortly after we had gotten Simon.  After I left Bessborough School after Grade 8 Jennifer picked up our first Border Collie, a male tri-color, named Dillon, who spent most of the summer with me in the basement and in our cottage while I was playing the guitar I had gotten the previous Christmas.  Shortly before Easter I pulled out an old dog book and looked at the Border Collie and read the page’s facts.  For Easter we got the VHS Babe, and on seeing Fly and Rex and the puppies in the movie, the Border Collie, in fact, bumped the Retriever out of my favorite breed file and entered the #1 breed spot up to the time I writing this Blog and always will be.  The fall after graduation I got my own Border Collie, a female who looked like Fly, named Molly, for 6 years.  Unfortunately, before moving to Saint John, I lost her at 6 years to a tumor right on her nose, and I was no Elsa, because I thought I could never Let it Go.   But before moving I got another Border Collie, this time named Ella. 

My least favourite breed

My least favorite breed is, in fact, the Pug, because they look like they chase parked cars with a flat nose, and they cause traffic jams.  Our neighbors on Alexander Avenue had, in fact, a Retriever named Toby who was Simon’s litter mate, and a couple pugs, one named Kirby and one named Huey.  Kirby always spent most of his/her time on Alexander Avenue…which slowed down our road trips to the grocery store, haircuts, movies, CD/Tape stores, my piano lessons, school fall fairs, school science fairs, school talent shows, piano recitals, guitar lessons, school choir and band concerts, church, basketball games, and local plays/musicals. 

Grade 8

After a bit of an absence, the school year stories are returning. Catch up on all the school years.

This was my last year of Junior High.  My homeroom teacher was my French teacher, newcomer Miss Cote.  My gym teacher’s name was Mr. Adams.  My social studies teacher was Ms. McClafferty.  I had the same shop and home economics teachers. 

Miss Cote introduced us to French music by pop artist Roch Voisine, playing his famous English/French Album Helene, and I liked all the songs, so I bought the tape myself. 

In band I played the tuba, later the clarinet, and then finally, I started playing the trombone. 

Again I played the sports and watched them in intramurals. 

Erin played house league basketball.  She also played for Hillcrest. 

I was reading Listen for the Singing by Jean Little with help from a teacher who was a coach and sports teacher, named Mr. Bowser.  We adopted a cat:  a Japanese Bobtail, and I named her Maggie, getting the name from a character in this book I was reading in school. 

I started going to the YMCA’s teen drop-in every Friday. 

I wanted to learn to play guitar, so I asked for a guitar for Christmas, and this Christmas, I did, indeed, get a guitar, and with it a video on how to play chords and I learned them all in no time.  Later Dan McArdle and I got together at his house to jam together with a blues song. 

I joined the school drama club and I was in a play for the Drama Festival called What Cool Is.  I did not have lines, but I had to change places between scenes. 

I met a friend who also liked to play guitar named Jana.  She and I jammed together with our guitars.  We played in the school talent show, playing The Beatles’ Twist and Shout and Nirvana’s About a Girl. 

In no time, this school year was coming to a close.  The prom came up, and we danced to familiar dance and pop hits from the radio station.  The school year finally ended, but the last day was so heartfelt, that I was up all night, sad about leaving Bessborough School after 5 years. 

But the summer was a lot of fun, as we had the same cottage as last time, only this time lots of relatives joined us as Jennifer was about to be married to Brian, and the celebrations were in our house and our cottage, and some of our relatives had their own cottage near that area, and Aunt Betty and Uncle Don’s cottage was the host venue for a treasure hunt as a wedding celebration, plus Jennifer just got a new puppy: a Border Collie named Dillon, and he was playful and fun to be with.  Plus this was my first summer with a guitar, and whenever I watched the guitar instruction video and played along with the instructor Dillon would come down and spend time with me, watching and listening to me play.  The wedding took place at our church, followed by a reception at the Keddy’s Hotel.  We watched movies a lot, and one of them was Angels in the Outfield. 

I was earlier told about a music camp near Bouctouche called Camp Wildwood.  At this point Dillon was still a playful pup.  I went there for a whole week, and there was singing, lots of good meals, 2 pianos:  one on the top floor of the lodge and one on the bottom floor, a tuck shop with all kinds of great treats, campfires with singing, a pool, several cabins, and a musical in the end about a girl named Grace who teaches children to say grace and I played the piano and I was to touch Grace’s forehead to see if she was feeling well during the numbers as part of the play. 

When I got back after a week at camp we went to our house, and Dillon came around the house from the backyard, now full-grown and a changed bark, but I recognized him because he recognized me. 

Weeks later I went back to Camp Wildwood for another week, this time for Basketball Camp.  This time each day we went into Bouctouche to a school called Mgr. Michaud School with a gym for the basketball.  We had the great meals, the tuck shop, campfires, swims in the pool, and a bonus showing of the movie Angels in the Outfield.  I rented an electric guitar with an amp: a Peavey Preditor.