10 Years Together, Gillis & I

January 21 is Gillis’ unofficial birthday…and marked the anniversary of his adoption date. Gilly has been with me for 10 years.

In 1996, I bought my first home, a ground level condo in Pitt Meadows. The strata bylaws allowed dogs…up to 25lbs. Determined that I needed a dog, on my way home from visits to my mom & dad in Maple Ridge, I’d often stop at the SPCA to see the adoptable dogs. I wanted to take them all home, but that was of course out of the question. One afternoon in January 1997, I stopped in, and amid the clamour of barking dogs sat a beautiful young dog with soulful chestnut eyes; his matted coat had every conceivable shade of brown and cream. Unlike all the other barking dogs, this one was silent. I crouched down to say hello, and he moved closer and licked my fingers. Boom! Love at first sight. Problem was, he weighed about 45 lbs. Quickly adopting the attitude that rules were meant to be broken, I decided that this beautiful creature and I belonged together.

The card on the outside of his cage indicated that he was about a year old, and had been picked up as a stray in Hammond. He didn’t become adoptable until the following day at noon, giving whoever had lost or abandoned him time to claim him. I said goodbye, and as I left, I could feel those eyes glued to my back.

Claiming urgent personal business, I left work early the following day,and raced out to Maple Ridge to adopt him, making sure I was there by noon. Adoptions were first come, first served. I arrived on the stroke of noon…only to be told that they’d made an error, and he wasn’t adoptable until the next day.

I couldn’t take any more time off work, so my friend Michele picked him up for me the next day, decided he reeked to high heavens, and promptly took him to the groomers for a bath and de-matting.

I picked him up later that afternoon, complete with a geeky triangular scarf tied around his neck. He smelled very perfumy, but that was a huge improvement over the way he'd smelled before. There has been ongoing discussion and debate about his breeding. Some have suggested husky/border collie, some border collie/Nova Scotia duck toller. We'll never know, but he's a mutt extraordinaire.

Gillis soon settled into our home...he learned to live with me, Jenny and two cats. After a couple of days, he had an appointment at the vet's to be neutered. Getting into the car, he slipped his collar, raced around the building, and almost tripped up the president of the strata council, who glared at me, no doubt doing mental arithmetic about how much larger than 25 lbs this dog was.

I chased Gillis through the townhouse complex next door, and finally cornered him in a small fenced garden. He had his surgery despite his best efforts to avoid it.

We bonded, Gilly and I, and he's been my most loyal companion for ten years now.

He's a sweet natured dog, who seldom barks. He was terrified of men when I first got him, and once jumped right over the couch at my parents' place when my dad raised his voice.

A few months after he came to live with us, I took a trip to Mexico, and when I came home, I discovered that he'd carried all my shoes to his bed in my clothes closet. Gillis likes closets and slept there for years. He's moved to the end of the bed right where my feet are supposed to go now.

We walked daily on the dykes in Pitt Meadows, between March and October. November to February were off limits, or at the very least, on leash due to the dead salmon that lined the banks of the Alouette River. Eau de salmon mort is Gillis's very favorite cologne. At the very least it must be well rubbed into the shoulders, and should preferably coat the entire body.

Three years later, Gillis had to deal with the arrival of Mike. On one of our first dates, on a grey foggy morning, Mike and I took Gillis up to Harrison Lake. As we got to Harrison, the fog lifted, and it turned into a brilliantly gorgeous late fall morning. We walked to the beach, and I let Gillis off the leash to run around, and within seconds he had found dead salmon to wallow in. (I knew they spawned in the river, but no one told me they went into the lake). Rotten salmon is possibly the most vile odour on earth. Gillis was covered in grey slime, looking so pleased and proud, and completely unable to understand why I was going apoplectic. The hour long ride home was gross, foul, repulsive, disgusting, nauseating and not very pleasant at all, and I spent the next hour bathing the dog, confident that I'd never see Michael again. He stayed, though, and we've been married for almost seven years!

Gilly has seen many changes...in 2000, Lucy arrived to torment him, and in 2002, Jasper came onto the scene.

Last year, Gillis gained freedom that he'd never had. He has the run of our 10 fenced acres, and often disappears into the forest in pursuit of squirrels. Last spring, he found a moose grazing in our woods.

He's starting to show his age a little. His muzzle is getting white, and his eyes are beginning to cloud slightly with cataracts. I can't decide if he's not hearing quite as well as he used to, or has just taken to being selectively deaf. He's the last one off the bed and out the door in the mornings now. He still plays like a pup when he feels like it, and there's lots of life my dear old boy yet.