Celebrated Pets

Endearing Tales of Companionship and Loyalty

AUTHOR: Cheryl MacDonald
FORMAT: 5.5 x 8.5 pb / 128 pages
ISBN-10: 1-55439-103-2
ISBN-13: 978-1-55439-103-5

Canadians love their pets! Some relationships between people and their cherished companions are legendary. The animals in this collection developed unbreakable bonds with the humans that loved them. From Jumbo the elephant to the bear called Winnie, from Prime Minister King's "little angel dogs" to Emily Carr's menagerie, these stories will touch your heart.

Prologue

Winter had already arrived in Quebec when Grey Owl and his wife, Anahareo, set out to their new cabin. After sending most of their equipment by sleigh, they loaded their canoe with camping gear and their beloved beaver kittens, McGinnis and McGinty. Now eight months old, the kittens travelled in a portable stove basically a rectangular metal box for safety. On this trip there was an extra reason to keep them confined. The kittens, who had been dubbed "The Macs," had lost much of their fur to a mysterious ailment. While a change of diet and some salve seemed to be working, in their hairless condition they were vulnerable to the penetrating cold of icy waters.

The Macs protested with an assortment of squawks and grumblings. Grey Owl and Anahareo ignored them, paddling as swiftly as possible toward their destination. The sides and bottom of the canoe became coated with ice, but Grey Owl was an experienced canoeist. Standing on the slippery stern, he poled hard into the water. "In an especially stiff piece of fast water," Grey Owl later wrote, "my moccasins, frozen and slippery as glass, shot from under me on the icy canoe bottom and I fell flat on my face in the river." The shift in balance tipped the canoe on its side. Anahareo, who had been kneeling in the canoe, was flung into the water. Moments later, the pair was standing upright in the river, horrified to realize the stove and the beaver kittens were somewhere in the icy water. Shut tight in their stove, with no possibility of escape, the Macs would drown or freeze within minutes.Grey Owl and Anahareo groped frantically beneath the surface. "Suddenly we were holding up the dripping stove between us, although we could never remember the act of finding it, and Anahareo was crying out, 'They're alive! they're alive!'"

About the Author

Cheryl MacDonald has been writing about Canadian history for nearly 30 years. A full-time writer and historian, her historical articles have appeared in The Beaver, Maclean's, the Hamilton Spectator, and the Old Farmer's Almanac. Cheryl has also written more than 24 books on the history of Ontario and Canada, including the Amazing Stories titles Niagara Daredevils, Great Canadian Love Stories, Christmas in Ontario, Laura Secord, and Deadly Women of Ontario. Born and raised in Montreal, she now lives in rural Nanticoke, Ontario, with a household of pets, including Louie the Labrador; Sophie, a senior Siamese; and the Orangetigger twins, Arnold and Samantha.

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