But first, let me tell you a bit about myself. I’m a male and about a year old. I’m about to become an Emotional Support Dog for Gareth Young, a former soldier who has PTSD, in Melanie’s current novel. It Happened at Percé Rock.
Here’s some of Gareth’s story and the root of his PTSD. He and his best friend since like forever, Normand Levesque, enlisted in the Canadian military and assigned to the Vandoos. They were deployed to Afghanistan, where Normand was killed when a roadside bomb exploded and destroyed their armoured vehicle. Gareth took quite a bit of shrapnel in his right arm from the shoulder to his hand, so he has the physical and the emotional scars. Normand didn’t have a mark on him.
Lately, things have been getting much worse for Gareth. Medication, counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy aren’t working. That’s when he psychiatrist suggested an Emotional Support Dog. It took some persuading on the doctor’s part, but eventually, Gareth went along with the idea, and I’m thrilled he chose me. I’ve been working with Gareth for a while now, getting to know him, his needs and his triggers.
So you see, I’ve got my work cut out for me.
Anyway, if you think you’ve got the perfect name for me, please leave it in the comments. I’d love to hear your suggestions. I can’t be forever known as Dog.
Over the years, we’ve had many dogs. And every single one who crossed over the rainbow bridge broke my heart more than the one before.
These are the last two dogs who shared their lives with us.
This fine looking dog was Jingles. He was a cross between a Corgi and a German Shepherd. And like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh, he had bounce. He could jump straight up from all fours and still propel himself forward. And in the photo above, is the way he liked to sit in my lap.
And in the photo below, this handsome boy was Jake. Both dogs lived with us at the same time. Ear infections plagued this poor boy from the time he was a small puppy. He broke the blood vessels in the flap of his ears on more than one occasion, too—a costly trip to the vet.
Jingles and Jake both loved lettuce. If I was preparing a salad, I had both dogs, one on either side of me waiting their turn. So it was a leaf for one, a leaf for the other and finally a leaf for the salad.
The year we planted lettuce, Jake stomped into the garden and ate it. A fence blocked off the entire garden, but he found a way through and munched more.
Jingles disappeared one night and never returned. To this day, we have no idea where he went. Off to die? Perhaps.
Jake, we ended up having to put him down. He was old and had difficulty walking. He fell frequently, and when he did, he lost control of his bowels. It was no life for him, so we made the decision.
Did you know that in each book in my It Happened series, a dog plays a role? A matchmaker, if you will.
The plan is to have six books in the series, featuring the Scott and Layne families. For everyone to tell their how they met – how “It Happened”, I need that many books.
Wolfgang, the Great Dane, will star in It Happened at Lake Louise. I’m thinking of the Fort Mac wildfires as the backstory and how pets were rescued from people’s homes and taken out of the danger zone and reunited with their humans later.
I’m torn between having a Corgi or a Whippet in It Happened at Niagara Falls. Thankfully, this book is further down the pipeline, so I’ll have plenty of time to make my final decision.
A stuffed Scottie dog will star in the last book of the series, It Happened ?? I’ve not decided on a location for it yet.
This wee guy will be sitting on the empty seat beside Amy Scott either on the train or bus or some method of public transit. A young man will ask if he can sit there, and she agrees, not paying much attention to him. He picks up the stuffed toy and reads the tag and pronounces the name on it as Sea-u-mus. She looks at him and rolls her eyes and tells him it’s pronounced Shaymus.
I hope you’ll take a look at my books starring dogs. Roxanne St. Claire also has a couple of dog series in the works – The Dogfather series and The Dogmothers. Check them out, too.
If it’s June 26, 2020, it must take your dog to work day!
Under ‘normal’ circumstances on a Friday, I would be working from home. Since we went under lock-down in my area in late March, things have been far from the norm.
This year the last Friday in June, which falls on June 26, I’ve booked the day off as a vacation day (I have my doubts I’ll use all of my allotted vacation time before the end of the year). However; I’ll still be working in a sense.
This afternoon, I’m doing a reading from one of my adult (not that kind of adult material for you people with dirty minds – and even if it were, I would choose a PG13 rated passage) novels for Seniors Centre Without Walls. Best of all, the only requirement is I have a phone. A conference call is the order of the day. I like that even better.
So what does this have to do with taking your dog to work today? Well, nothing really, except I am taking my sweet Buddy with me when I do the reading. He can sit in my lap whilst I read and answer questions. At least I hope there are questions from the virtual audience.
Here’s my sweet boy. He travels well – doesn’t trash hotel rooms, bark a lot or have accidents indoors – home or away. This picture was taken at St. Hubert in Quebec City.
On days I’m working from home, he’s usually in the kitchen with me. Sometimes he wears my phone headset but as cute as he is, he’s rubbish at taking my calls.
My Buddy even has his own book. Well, in that I wrote it and he and his four fantastic furry friends star in it.
Here he is on a work at home day.
My Scottish roots and writing by Melanie Robertson-King
