Sprocket, a remarkable, though rambunctious Bearded Collie came to my Mom and Dad’s house when we already had 2 other dogs: an elderly Cocker Spaniel named Chico, and my beloved Border Collie, Molly.
At the moment I was with the Cameron family with their little girl Brooke and their Shepherd\Husky Mix Oskar and Yellow Lab Elmer.
One day the Camerons took us for a drive to my Mom’s house to meet Sprocket and Brooke, a toddler, was calling all the dogs “Puppy.”
Sprocket, at the moment, still a puppy, was adorable, lovable, and a wonderful playmate with Molly.
Sprocket, by the way, was named after the Fraggle Rock dog.
Later they came up with a DVD which was playing at Zellers and the first lines played were “Attaboy Sprocket” and the dog on the show came out.
(SPOILER ALERT) Near the end of the 2005/2006 year Disney came up with a remake of The Shaggy Dog, in which Tim Allen’s character, a lawyer about to be elected D.A., is bitten by a Bearded Collie from Tibet, which makes him act like a dog at home, in court, and various public places before he turns into a Bearded Collie himself, which almost messes up his career and nearly messes up his marriage, but the spell teaches the man to be a better father and attorney. The movie came to theatres and I enjoyed the movie.
The Cameron family decided to move to Red Deer, Alberta, which meant I would move to Moncton... and later to Saint John, where I had stayed at the Delta as a child, shopping at its mall, and swimming in its pool. I thought of this as time to spend with family in the meantime, including the dogs. It was a heartfelt goodbye to Blake, Kansas and Brooke Cameron and their dogs, sad heartfelt moment 1 of 2... as one day Mom, Stephanie, and I went to the One Stop Superstore to go grocery shopping... and came home and noticed my dear Border Collie Molly was sneezing and pouring blood out of her nose.
We took her to Dr. Vessey’s office, which transferred her to the UPEI Veterinary College, who let us know she had a tumor and had to put her to sleep.
Everyone except me was crying, even my nephews and nieces.
Sprocket missed her so much he did not feel like eating for a long time.
On August 9th 2006, Mom and I took a drive to Saint John to visit L’Arche Saint John.
At the house were nice friendly people, lots of bedrooms, a garage about to be converted to an office, an office about to be converted to a bedroom, a small 2-keyboard organ, a TV, and a kitchen with a schedule.
I got a tour and we talked with my new housemates-to-be, and I told them about the recent tragedy, and one person got a tissue and cried.
I played the small organ, playing Be Not Afraid, dedicating it to Molly.
Then we drove uptown to see of there were rooms at the Delta, and yes, there were!
We reserved our room, found it, and enjoyed it.
In fact, our room had a view of the Our Lady of the Assumption Church steeple and Martello Tower, under which my new house was located.
I used the pool and the mall, buying a black Timex Ironman at The Source by Circuit City, the CD Cars and the DVD The Shaggy Dog which I had seen the previous spring at the theatre.
After a night at the Delta we drove home.
Later we drove to Antigonish, intent on visiting their L’Arche Houses... and made an impromptu stop in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, where Sobeys and Big 8 Beverages were born, to visit a Border Collie breeder’s house, and picked out one of the Border Collies, named Ella because her registered name was Stellar Ella.
We drove to Antigonish, visited a L’Arche Day Program where I played the piano and talked with lots of friendly people, stayed at a hotel with a pool, drove back to Stellarton, picked up Ella, and came home.
This restored Sprocket’s appetite as he had a new friend.
The following October Mom and I flew to Toronto to attend our first Geneva Centre Autism Symposium, where we met writer Temple Grandin, took the subway plenty of times, shopped at countless malls and HMV stores, attended a Halloween parade, stayed at the Royal York, used its pool, and used its underground link to Union Station. This was my first Fairmont Hotel since the visit to Quebec with Dad and Me when we used the Chateau Frontenac and met Molly as a pup on the way home.
After these wonderful adventures, we flew home... and found out my move to L’Arche was a go.
After 2 weekends spent at L’Arche Saint John, I moved into McKim House, and on my door was a poster with pictures and signatures and a drawing another resident had drawn of me.
When I went home for Christmas, the dogs were happy to see me and we watchedNational Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation andA Christmas Story.
When Christmas came I got my usual items: A Border Collie calendar and a Dogs in Canada Annual... plus a surprise: tickets to a showing of Superdogs, the first since summer when I was between grades 9 and 10, afterBabe came to VHS and I saw the movies for the first time. It’s also interesting to note my nephews Brennan and Connor came too and enjoyed it. (SPOILER ALERT) They had DVDs of a movie called Daniel and the Superdogs in which a troubled young boy who had just lost his mother to illness, was getting into too much trouble with his friends until he is helped by a Jack Russell Terrier who is a Superdogs competitor while volunteering at the animal shelter, and as a result they compete in the Superdogs competition in the end.
(SPOILER ALERT) When Easter came McKim House had a symbolic tradition on Good Friday: We watched the Disney DVDThe Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, because Aslan’s sacrifice in the end and his resurrection resembles the Passions in the Gospels read on Good Friday, and a week earlier on Palm Sunday.
Every time I came home to see Mom, all dogs would be happy to see me, including Ella, Sprocket, Chico, and Dillon, Jennifer’s Border Collie, now next door to Mom’s house in a newly-built house.
Sprocket licked my hand all the time, even when we watched TV and movies.
On the National Geographic Channel was a show calledThe Dog Whisperer with famous dog trainer Cesar Milan.
Every time I came home we watched a PVR recorded episode.
(SPOILER ALERT) This trainer had worked with famous celebrities, including the late Ed McMahon and writer John Grogan, author of the famous bookMarley & Me, which later became a tearjerker movie starringCars andYou Me and Dupree star Owen Wilson as Grogan andFriends star Jennifer Aniston as Jenny in which the famous Labrador Marley enters the family and causes all kinds of problems, but at the end of the dog’s life the family realizes what a great dog he was, despite all the problems he caused. I call this movie theTitanic of dog movies.
Some of Cesar’s techniques I used with Sprocket and later 2 Cotons de Tulear named Liza and Lupin, who entered our family in 2009 after Dillon, Jennifer’s Border Collie, had passed away at 14 years of age.
Later Jennifer got another Border Collie named Danny.
It’s interesting to note that later Stephanie, one of my sisters, got a Coton de Tulear named Mo, Lupin’s grandson in fact.
I try Cesar’s techniques with Mo too.
In summer 2017, I came to Moncton to see Mom and Dad, and the dogs.
Sprocket was very elderly but he still remembered me. He had completely lost his hearing. Before I was picked up on the way to the L’Arche Regional Picnic in Truro I gave Sprocket one last pat goodbye and he gave me one last hand lick.
At Hampton Bible Camp I prayed for Sprocket every night to myself.
When I came home I received a text on my BlackBerry from Mom that Sprocket had to be put to sleep on Wednesday, and I was sad.
I will miss him.
“A dog has no use for fancy cars, big homes, or designer clothes. A water log stick will do just fine. A dog doesn't care if your rich or poor, clever or dull, smart or dumb. Give him your heart and he'll give you his. How many people can you say that about? How many people can make you feel rare and pure and special? How many people can make you feel... extraordinary?” - Owen Wilson as John Grogan in the movie Marley & Me
