My Pets

Animals I have known.

Spek and Frodo

These are my dogs. Spek is Dutch for "bacon" which just happens to be my favourite food. I didn't know how appropriate the name was at the time. Frodo comes from the Old English for "wise or pure of heart". My dog is pure of heart, but not very wise. In fact she is quite vacuous. Sad really, but true.

Slave Lake Provincial Park, 2002

Spek - Deline, NT 1994

This is Spek as a teeny tiny puppy. She is pigeon-toed. She's the pup that was rescued from the dump. She'll do anything for cheese.

Frodo - Kugluktuk, NU 1994 - Nain, Nunatsiavut 2008

Here's little Frodo. She was frozen and half dead when I found her under the stairs to the school where I worked. She slept in a box in my office for the day and then I took her home where she proceeded to drink three bowls of milk in a row. That's when I knew she would make it.

Spek - Bloddy Fall, Coppermine River, 1997

This is my favourite pic of Spek. We were camping at Bloody Fall, on the Coppermine River. It's about 9 miles from Kugluktuk The explorer Samuel Hearne and his Chipewyan guides camped along the Coppermine River, and on July 17, 1771, the guides murdered a party of Inuit men, women, and children as they slept, not far away. This spot has excellent fishing. I doubt the massacre has anything to do with it.

Carson-Pegasus Provincial Park, 1998

This is one of my favourite pics of Frodo. The joy of camping is just oozing out of her. We are at Carson-Pegasus Provincial Park, just outside Whitecourt, AB. Yeah, we are winter camping. Yeah, it was cold.

Edmonton, AB 1997

When I finally got my own place to live in up North, I slept in a hammock. I continued to do so when I moved to Edmonton. This is How Frodo and I often spent our evenings. We didn't own a TV. Spek always slept on the floor under the hammock. Well, she did until the night the hook broke. Fortunately, Spek is a fast moving dog.

Edmonton, AB 1997

Here we are in my first home in Edmonton. The puppies had free reign over the furniture and me. They are some of the best travelled dogs ever. From Deline to Kugluktuk to New Brunswick to Edmonton back to New Brunswick to Labrador - Spek made the journey from Labrador to Saskatchewan and then to Yukon without her 'sister' Frodo.

Newest Puppies

Tibby

Tibby in Natuashish, November 2006

Tibby is our full time Princess. All things in the house "belong" to her - such attitude! She is an excellent guard dog though. We just wish she would distinguish between people who regularly visit us and those who don't - all get the full warning bark!

Pud

Pud in Natuashish, November 2006

Our Pudly is cuddly - literally. I have never had a dog with such separation anxiety! We took Pud in after her previous owner moved to Newfoundland and asked that we care for her. I love my Pud; she is such a clown dog!

Pipun

Pipun - Natuashish, November 2006

Pipun is our newest pup - although she is a year old now, I have to find a good picture of her to update this one. We seem to have quite a knack for rescuing dogs. Fortunately, the dog situation in Nain is better than it was in Nautashish and we don't see as many neglected or abused dogs here. Pipun has the sweetest temperament of all our dogs and she may well be the smartest of the pack. I know she is Carolynn's favourite, but we don't let on to the others.

Idgi and Tommy-Tom Fat Head Cat

These are the cats. Enough said.

Edmonton, AB 1996 - Nain, Nunatsiavut 2008

Idgi on a hot day in Edmonton. Idgi has been known to eat fruitcake, pita bread, blue cheese, and tea. She also stole a cookie once, just as I was raising it to my mouth. Nothing is safe around her.

Fort Edmonton Park, 2001

Tommy-Tom Fat Head Cat. This pic is from the days he spent incarcerated at Fort Edmonton Park. He was a baaaad kitty. And he stunk something awful. He smells better now.

Assorted other pets.

Creep - 1988-2004

I got Creep in 1989 when I was living in Iqaluit. His previous owners had named him "Slash", and for very good reasons. Mom wanted him declawed immediately when I decided to go back to school. So he was. Didn't stop him from killing the wild things at my parents' house, though. He basically slapped them to death. Creep met his end in a torrential rain storm, at a hardy 15 years of age.

Tauri - 1990-2003

Tauri was actually my sister's dog. But, since two of my cats lived almost their entire lives with Tauri at my parents' home, I think it is only fair that she be included here with them. Tauri was a goofy dog who was afraid to walk on linoleum flooring and would stick her head under anything in a thunder storm - the cupboard, the table, a bookcase. The basket she is in in this pic didn't last too long. She chewed it right to the base in a matter of weeks. She lived out her final years on the farm in Grand Falls.

Keeva - 1989-2001

Keeva was Carolynn's dog when we met. He was a big, barrel-chested Lab cross. He smiled. It scared people. He had the softest ears ever. He held on long enough to see us all return safely from the Maritimes. Then, he made it very clear that it was time for him to go to the Great Hydrant in the sky.

Kitty - 1990 - 2008

Kitty was my parting gift to my parents. I got her weeks before I went off to Saskatchewan to go to dental school. Of course, I couldn't take her with me, so she stayed with them until three years ago, when she and Creep moved to my sister's house. Kitty is deaf. Kitty was abandoned at the vet's office. When I took Creep in to be declawed, I picked Kitty up because she looked so pathetic. All the other kittens had been taken already and she was all alone. She and Creep got along famously until she went prowling on the town and got knocked up. Creep never forgave the indescretion.

Kittens - Whereabouts Unknown

Just like in the old days, the kittens were secretly born and then shipped away so as not to bring disgrace on the whole family. No one knows where the Kittens are, and Kitty never mentions them.

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