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The Adventures of Tube Sausage n Ozzy
Kootenay Crust
By Ian Cobb
I grew up in a dog kennel.
My parents owned a boarding kennel and raised corgis and beagles. At its height, the kennel held about 100 dogs and had a full-time employee. Along with the kennel, the 16-acre ‘farm’ I grew up on also had horses, two large hay fields, large woods in which to roam, the Red River rolling by to fish in and paddle and vast tracts of neighbouring open land sprawled forth for my fun.
In many ways it was an idyllic childhood – prairie living in the 1960s and ‘70s.
Oftentimes summer was all just a boy and his dog, a bicycle and fishing rod and hot, dusty roads and lanes down which we trekked.
Dogs were always a part of my life, even into my dim and dense 20s, when I ended up with two wild and crazy blue heeler/border collies – Kootenay and Yoho.
The experience of having two endlessly energy-filled dogs taught me to become fully aware of the time and effort it takes to be a proper dog owner – or more to the fact, to be properly owned by a dog.
In the past 20 years I have been mostly dog free. I don’t believe in having a dog if one cannot give it the required time and love, or have the appropriate living conditions to allow for dog ownership.
Too often people rush out and get a dog or dogs because ‘they want one’ and don’t think about where they are living or how much time and money it is going to take to give a dog a proper home. People get dogs because they are the best companions, and I understand the desire for such a friend, but be real about your situation and don’t restrict your own life and impact to-the-negative a dog’s life if you can’t truly get the job done.
Carrie did the right thing about 10 years ago and gave her dog to her Mom and Dad.
She had moved into a condo in the city, with a thimble for a back yard, and the kids were gone. So Ozzy, a poodly-kind of rascal, came to Gold Creek to live in the country.
It was the best and kindest thing Carrie could do. Ozzy, who is now about 13 or 14 and sporting a bucket over his head to stop him from licking a recent surgical procedure, has lived a life of Reilly.
When Ozzy arrived on ‘the ranch’ he had to share the seven acres with another dog – Asker.
Asker is an amazing tube of a dog – a dachshund and something something, I assume. I call her Tube Sausage, or Harper, in reference to the sound of her bark “Harp! Harp!”
She will sit on the edge of chair on her haunches, her chubby belly flopping forward and her eyes the personification of hope as she searches for someone to hand her a snack. She is also about 14 and has a googy eye, bandy legs and a few warts and such, which along with her nose-wrinkling odour and penchant for silent but deadly farts, makes her an uncanny and unique beast.
Carrie and I moved to the ranch two years ago to help out her father after her mom died.
All of a sudden, we were a ‘dog family’ again. Carrie’s dad has the bottom half of the house and we have the top. And the two dogs have developed one hell of a routine – all with the intent of finding snacks, water and ways outside, or back inside.
“Harp! Harp!”
Ozzy patrols the property line and gives the squirrels hell. Though with a bum paw and fading eyesight and hearing, he’s not the terror he was even just a year ago. I believe several local squirrels drowned themselves in our rain barrels out of despair from his constant harassment.
Both Ozzy and Tube Sausage will tell the hordes of deer that munch their way across the property to “beat it or die” should they wander too close to the house but little mind is paid to them as they try to perform their doggy duties. Tube Sausage is particularly huffy and all four paws clear the ground when she lets out a mighty “HARP” whenever a deer ventures close to the house.
The dogs’ routines are now a part of our life, as well as Carrie’s dad’s. Those two little dogs are the poles in his world now.
And isn’t that what dogs do to peoples’ lives? They bring joy in all its simple forms, and they create situations where good humour thrives and sour moods go to die.
Dogs continue to teach humans how to love and they shine small rays of warm light into lives every day.
Having dogs around every day again takes me back to my earlier days; it has brought a forgotten gentle happiness back – a sense of quiet fulfillment and appreciation for the simpler things in life.
Ozzy and Tube Sausage are a dynamic duo. Thanks to being raised by caring and loving people, they are the happiest dogs you can imagine and without trying, they spread happiness on the ranch.
Who knew idyllic could exist in the 16th year into the 21st Century?
And yes, I am majorly deflecting away from the horrors of the US Presidential Election and the fact the Toronto Blue Jays are sending Aaron Sanchez to the bullpen.
– Ian Cobb is a country boy who loves sonic metal, and dogs.
