REMEMBERING WHEN: The indestructible little dog

By Keith Schell

One Saturday when my brother was young, he was invited into town for a winter playdate by a couple of his friends. There was a hill close to where his friends lived, and they made plans to spend the entire day tobogganing on the hill along with most of the other kids in the neighbourhood.

The hill usually attracted most of the local kids in the area, who spent many happy winter days barreling down the hill on Krazy Karpets, assorted sleds, and even large pieces of cardboard—anything that would fly down the hill at the usual breakneck speeds that kids loved. My brother brought along his own Krazy Karpet, and he and his friends had a fun time that morning.

When my brother and his friends took a break from tobogganing to go back to their place for lunch, their mom had the traditional Canadian winter fare prepared to warm up the kids: Campbell’s tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, hot chocolate with marshmallows—that sort of thing. Very Canadian, very tasty, and very warming and welcome on a cold winter day.

After finishing lunch, everyone went back over to the hill for more tobogganing fun.

And everywhere my brother’s friends went, they were happily accompanied by their family dog. A small, long-haired dog, breed unknown, he loved to play with his children and reveled in every moment he spent with them.

Wanting to be a part of every moment of the fun, the dog loved to run up the hill with the kids, and when they hopped back on their sleds and barreled down the hill again, the dog loved to run alongside them, tail wagging, sharing in the joy of a children’s moment in that special way that only a happy dog can.

After running down the hill happily chasing one of his kids, he saw his other kid up on the top of the hill preparing to come down. He began to run up the hill again to meet his other master.

The kid started down the hill on his Krazy Karpet. As he built up speed, he saw his dog running up the hill straight towards him. The kid quickly began to realize what was about to happen. He frantically tried to wave the dog out of his path as he barreled down the hill.

When his master was almost upon him, the dog finally began to realize what was about to happen. He turned tail and began to run down the hill! But rather than running slightly off to one side and to safety, he ran straight down the hill, still in the path of his master, as his kid on the Krazy Karpet got closer and closer.

Finally, his master on the Krazy Karpet overtook the little dog and ran him over! When the dog came out the back of the Krazy Karpet, he rolled and rolled until he finally rolled down to the bottom of the hill.

Because the scene looked like something out of a canine comedy farce, many of the children were innocently laughing at the poor dog as he got run over by his master on the Krazy Karpet.

But the laughter ceased very quickly when the dog stopped rolling and lay very still in a heap at the bottom of the hill.

The scene got very quiet. The dog wasn’t moving. The kids on the hill held their breath in concern for the little dog.

But after a moment, and to everyone’s relief, the dog stirred. He stood up at the bottom of the hill and vigorously shook his head to clear it.

And after his head had cleared, God’s “canine reset button” kicked in: the dog’s eyes lit up again, the tongue lolled out, the tail started wagging, and the doggy smile returned.

And then the little dog joyously ran full speed back up the hill again towards his children, happy to be a part of what was happening and more than willing to do the whole thing all over again.

I have no doubt that the little dog was probably more than a bit sore when he went home that night. But it was a happy type of sore—the type of sore that any loving dog would gladly trade off in exchange for spending the entire day doing what a dog was meant to do: joyously playing with children. It was the type of sore that comes from being a beloved and integral part of your children’s lives and having the loving willingness to occasionally accept the accidental mishaps that might happen in the name of doggy loyalty and unconditional family love.

And even though he got accidentally run over that day by his own kid flying down the hill on a Krazy Karpet, you could never truly crush the indefatigable spirit of the loved and loving family dog—truly an integral part of a happy, functional family and forever devoted and destined to be every child’s best friend.