Mail Call

           

Beau always responded when people came calling.  When we came home, he was there, tail wagging and panting, ready to jump up and greet us.  When company came, or the Bible study group came around he followed them everywhere, anxious to be part of the proceedings.  When the mailman came, the enthusiasm was the same, but the reaction was different.

            We first made the discovery one morning when Elizabeth was, unusually, home alone during the day. The mailman came and left our mail in the letterbox at the side of the house. Elizabeth was in the kitchen and opened the door to retrieve the mail. As she reached for the mail Beau was out of the house like a rocket in pursuit of the mailman.  The mailman claimed later that Beau attacked and bit him.  No evidence of biting was evident, but there could be no denial that Beau had pursued the mailman somewhat aggressively.

            The postman filed his complaint and Canada Post sent an official to investigate. Barbara, our neighbour, testified that there was no way that Beau could have attacked the postman – he was too nice a dog to do that.  He talked to Elizabeth and went into the backyard to interview the suspect.  Beau lay there serene, as the official talked to him and rubbed him.  It was the perfect life as far as Beau was concerned.  The official observed to Elizabeth that it seemed difficult to believe that Beau could be vicious.

            No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the mailman arrived.  Beau was off like a shot – teeth bared and growling.  The chain holding him grew taut as he pulled to get loose and show that postman once and for all that he was not welcome on our turf.  Needless to say, the Canada Post official was a little bit less certain that Beau was innocent in the case before him.

            We never did figure it out.  Beau was not by nature vicious or aggressive, but he sure went nuts with postmen.  Twice after he moved to Montreal he went after postmen.   In fact, Elizabeth finally received a notice from Canada Post that if he were to attack another postman it would be necessary to have him put down.

            My theory was that the postman must have threatened the dog to provoke such fear.  I could not help but notice a peculiar phenomenon one morning when I was at home. The persistent barking of a dog in the distance interrupted the silence of the usually tranquil neighbourhood.  Other dogs joined the chorus progressively and finally Beau also became part of the chorus as the postman arrived outside our door.  As the postman continued on his way quiet gradually returned to the neighbourhood as dogs dropped out of the barking chorus.  Was there communication in the canine community to warn of the malevolent postman on his rounds?

            The facts were never clearly established but we were certain that Beau was innocent.  Could the postman’s be at fault?  One of life’s unsolved mysteries.  

Word Guild Award
2011

Word Guild Award
2009

Life in Canada

            We settled into our house in Don Mills, Ontario and Beau set out to discover his new world.  The house backed onto a park with a lengthy bike path, baseball diamonds and hundreds of trees.  The bike path meant Beau could run beside our bikes.  The park meant he could go for a prolonged romp at night.  The squirrels were there to chase and the trees were for the squirrels to scamper up as the fearless hunting dog gave pursuit.  Beau tried them all.  He took advantage of all that the neighbourhood offered.  Unfortunately, Beau was not the one of the most well disciplined dogs in creation.  As we ran around the bike path, Beau could not be counted on to stay on course – he might spy a family barbecuing and choose to run off the path and see what they had to eat.  Beau found it fascinating. We found it embarrassing.  The folks barbecuing found it annoying.

      The Bible student

            More than anything else in Canada, Beau’s true self emerged as he responded to the various guests who came to the house.  On Wednesday evenings we hosted the College and Careers Bible study group associated with The Salvation Army’s North Toronto community church.  Beau longed to join the group of about 12 young adults.  He would be willing to lie on the floor and listen to the discussion.  Or, he might lick the occasional attendee.  Or he might wander around and put his paws on the occasional open Bible.  We knew that in his heart he was zealous and loved seeing everybody come. But his style was a bit disruptive, so we had to put him down the basement.  The problem, of course, was that we then had to endure 90 minutes of whimpering and scratching at the basement door as Beau indicated his displeasure at being locked out of this gathering.

“I’m going now, Beau” 

            Further social interaction took place when Eleanor’s parents came to visit – most often for Sunday dinner.  Eleanor’s dad took a real shine to Beau and loved to offer him candy when he left.  It took Beau about two visits to figure this one out.  As soon as Dad said, “I’m going now, Beau”, the pooch was there, kneeling in classical begging position.  He knew the candy was coming.  If there was not candy offered immediately, Beau would investigate Dad’s jacket pocket with his super-sensitive nose to help in the location of candy.  The routine became so predictable that Eleanor would have candies ready to give her father in the event that he was preparing to leave without offering a candy to the attentive dog.

What screen door?

            In the fall of 1994 we moved house to Parkview Hill Crescent.  It was a beautiful big house, with a sun-room on the back and a sliding screen door that opened into a big backyard.  On a nice summer evening we would sit there reading and watching television as Beau eyed the goings-on in the backyard.  Periodically a cat would wander through. The dog always rose to, as he saw it, the call of duty to rid the neighbourhood of cats.  Off he would go through the screen door to teach the cats once and for all not to trespass in his yard.  Over the course of the summer it would be necessary to replace the screen several times.  In fact it got to the point we kept a full roll of screening in the garage so that the screen could be replaced without a trip to Home Depot to purchase replacement parts.  In this, as in so many areas of life, Beau never adapted to the realities of suburban life.  He was willing to adapt to human food, but as far as he was concerned, the rest of the adaptation was up to the human community.

Word Guild Award
2011

Word Guild Award
2009

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Flight to Canada – Beau Discovers a New Land

June 1991 rolled around and the family was almost ready for the return to Canada.  Our four-year assignment in France was over.  John left in August 1990 to begin studies at Harvard University and was working in Toronto for the summer, so we were excited about the prospect of being together in our own country once again.

Glen called Air Canada to book flights for – Eleanor, Elizabeth and himself. Then he mentioned the dog would be travelling with us. “Will he be traveling in the cabin or down below?” asked the Air Canada agent. We hadn’t really thought about it.  We could imagine Beau sitting in seat 21 C, bib tucked in, enjoying his steak and Perrier as we flew over Greenland to Toronto.  Since the cost of that was prohibitive we answered that he would travel below – in his cage rather than in seat 21C. Beau was not consulted in the decision – we knew what he would say and we did not want to go there. 

The tickets were bought, the farewells were said and we prepared for the trip to Canada.  We were heading home.  But Beau was heading to Canada as a foreigner.  We contacted the Canadian embassy to see what would have to be done to bring the French member of our family into the land of the Maple Leaf.  The Canadian embassy spelled out the requirements:  he had to be vaccinated within the last year and at least three months before so the vaccinations had a chance to take effect.  The vaccination certificate had to be validated by the French government.  So off we went with our vaccination certificates from the veterinarian, ratified by the French government’s veterinary service and off to the Canadian embassy to get things set.

Beau had to be prepared for the trip.  Elizabeth took on that responsibility, administering tranquilizer pills each day for the week preceding our trip home.  On July 1 we headed to Charles de Gaulle airport and put Beau in his cage for check-in at the Air Canada counter.  Elizabeth administered the injection of a tranquilizer and Beau headed off for boarding.  Beau, not a fan of needles squirmed as she knelt on the airport floor, holding his paw in her hand, as a result spraying a portion of the injection on the Charles de Gaulle floor tiles.  As we stood at the gate awaiting our boarding, we watched him as his cage was towed across the tarmac to the plane – with Beau, the only canine still awake, standing up observing the entire adventure.  It appeared that the tranquilizer was not having any immediate effect, no doubt due to some spilt drops…

We boarded the plane for the 8-hour flight to Toronto.  After clearing customs in Toronto we emerged to meet our family and collect our luggage.  From behind we heard a familiar sound – the plaintive bark of Beau in his cage, welcoming us to the new land, asking when he could get out.

We were home.  Beau had cleared Canadian immigration.  The family was home and Beau was beginning a new life in a new land.  It was a land of big parks, open spaces, squirrels to chase.  The adventure for our three-year-old rocket was just beginning.

Word Guild Award
2011

Word Guild Award
2009

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Salzburg – Beau visits the land of the Sound of Music

August 1990 brought a significant transition for the family as John left home to travel to Boston where he commenced his studies at Harvard University.  The leave-taking at Charles de Gaulle airport was a sorrowful one.  Fortunately for us there was a diversionary plan – a trip to Germany and Austria with our good friends Geoff and Dot Havercroft, who had come from London, England to join us for the trip.  Beau, of course, had his seat marked out in the car and waited eagerly for our departure.

The German trip was particularly entertaining in that it was necessary to procure a paper from the German embassy in Paris attesting to Beau’s ownership and his vaccination status.  The paperwork was done and Glen went to the embassy, emerging with a duly stamped certificate to allow the noble dog to enter Germany. Despite all the advance preparations, we were not ready for the seriousness of the border guard at Oberndorf in Austria who checked and stamped the humans’ passports and then proceeded to check and stamp Beau’s papers when we came back from Germany.  The dog took it all in stride, appreciative of the fact that Austrian customs was doing its best to keep the country a good place for him to visit.

Beau particularly enjoyed the Austrian restaurant circuit.  He had barely entered the pizzeria (where we ate on three occasions) before the waiter arrived with “wasser fur das hund.” Beau set to drinking the liquid right away as we perused the menus.  He was touched by the attentiveness of the wait staff and perplexed as to why the dog could not enjoy his rightful place in other eating establishments we visited.

Part of the Salzburg visit included a bus tour of the sites of the filming of the movie The Sound of Music in and around Salzburg.  The activities for that day divided on gender lines – Eleanor, Elizabeth and Dot Havercroft took in the bus tour; Geoff, Glen and Beau strolled around town, to the local church.  After a few hours, the men grew tired of tramping around.

Late in the afternoon we met the bus tour with Eleanor, Elizabeth and Dot.  There were a few calls left on the tour and the driver, for some reason, offered to pick us up. He may have taken pity on us because at an earlier stop he nearly drove away without Elizabeth.  It was the shouts of Eleanor that her daughter was not on the bus that averted this catastrophe. 

 

In any case, Geoff and Glen got on with Beau.  The men proceeded, in a dignified way, to find one of the empty seats remaining. Beau, spying Elizabeth at the back of the bus, raced towards her like a rocket as the other passengers looked on aghast, trying to figure out what this furry projectile hurtling past them was.  Once beside Elizabeth he settled down to add to his store of canine knowledge. We never did hear Beau howl out Edelweiss, but the look of the Salzburg Festival and Baron von Trapp was often in his eyes.  And all you had to do was mention apfel strudel and he was right there ready to partake. 

Word Guild Award
2011

Word Guild Award
2009