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.