Bi-Coastal Pooch...

I love cats but while I love cats I have also loved two dogs in my life. My first dog was a solid black, Cocker Spaniel that my parents bought for me as a companion dog when I was between the ages of four to five years old.

In my family I was an only child with two grown up brothers; both were students in high school when I was born. I also had an older sister who was eighteen years old when I came along in the family, and she was living in Nova Scotia, Canada.
I was an only child with three grown up siblings.

This was why my father felt that I needed to have a companion to keep me company, and he chose a friendly, black, male puppy, a Cocker Spaniel as my dog that I named Black Pal, and alternatively I called my dog Little Pal.
My older brother Bobby (Robert Steven) had a beautiful white, Spitz, purebred dog he called ‘White Pal’ so you get the idea of where I got my dog’s name!

When I was eight years old my father bought the family a home that was located on the outskirts of the City of Lynn, Massachusetts where Lynn bordered with the Town of Saugus. Early one morning, shortly after we moved to our home, my father went out on an errand to the local hardware store that was just over the boarder in the small Town of Saugus.
He saw Little Pal following him but he didn’t think that anything would go wrong.

When my father reached the end of our street he crossed the major thoroughfare, which is called Boston Street. Black Pal followed, and was struck by a car. My little friend was gone, and my father felt terrible that it happened because my dog followed him that morning.

My father told my mother to make sure that she took me to a pet store to pick out another dog. I chose an orange colored, male, Wire Haired Terrier that I named Sandy McTavish MacGregor Garnier. Sandy McTavish MacGregor Garnier is the doggie, who later became my bi-coastal pooch.

Wire Haired Terriers were originally bred as ‘ratters’. They are aggressive enough to go after rats and kill them, thus this breed of dog protects food crops when in storage from infestations of rats, among other rodents. Terriers in general are good protection dogs for children, and they are loyal to their human companions. Sandy was sometimes difficult when he insisted that he wanted to accompany me to school. I had to sneak out of the house every morning, and the first thing I would do when I returned from my school day was I would take my Sandy out for a walk. During the day my mother would often tether sandy on a very long chain in our back yard so he could have some sunshine, and be able to relieve himself. I had the chore of cleaning up after the little guy, and I didn’t mind because he was such a friendly, special dog.

After my father passed away in March of 1959 my mother and I moved to Poughkeepsie, New York, with both of my brothers. After living in the city of Poughkeepsie for a couple of months we moved to our new home in the Town Of Poughkeepsie that was called Red Oaks Mill.
Sandy moved along with the family to both locations in New York.
I remember the warm summer night when someone entered our open garage, and crept down our basement stairs hiding in our dark basement much like a rat would hide and wait for their chance to do damage.

My mother was in the habit of watching late night TV in our split-level family room, which was adjacent to the garage, and above the basement. There was a locked door between the garage, and the family room. My mother watched Johnny Carson, and before Johnny was host of the Tonight Show my mother watched Jack Parr. Sometimes I would stay up late and watch TV with her, especially in the warm summer months.

We kept a large cage with birds in our family room, a pair of parakeets I named Sam and Abie. My Sandy McTavish MacGregor stayed in this large family room at night. Sandy was tethered on a long leash yet he could reach to the door that was between the garage and the family room. From this vantage point he could also reach to the first two carpeted stairs that led upstairs to the third level of this split level home.

I remember that night; my younger, older brother Bob first came to the room my mother and I occupied, and he woke us up.
He told us that he heard Sandy growling!
The door to the downstairs family room was closed, yet my brother could hear my dog growling.

We all got up, and made a lot of noise to try to scare off any intruder(s), while one of my brothers called the police. Back then all phones were in-house phones; we didn’t have cell phones back in the summer of 1961.

I remember how afraid I was as I stood in back of my brother Bob as he opened the door to the family room. Bob had a baseball bat in his hands in case he had to use it. He flicked on the lights, the light switchs were located both at the top of the stairs, and at the bottom of the stairs. We couldn't see anyone in the family room but we could see that our back door was wide open. And when we checked the 'locked' door between the garage and the family room we found that the locked door was open; it looked like the lock had been jimmied.
On the railing leading up the stairs from the family room to the kitchen there was a burn, a large burn like that from a cigar, not a cigarette. Cigar smoke was in the air. The rug was also burned below the railing, and there was ash on the rug. There was some blood splattered on the linoleum leading to the open back door.
Sandy was unhurt!

It wasn’t hard to figure out what had happened. My brother Michael remembered that he had the garage open earlier that evening, while he was working on the front lawn. Someone entered our garage unseen, and crept down the stairs to the lowest level in our house, and hid in our basement. Sandy saved all of our lives that night.
We all believed this to be the case!
So when my brother Michael, my mother and I moved across the country to California in November 1962 we took our Sandy McTavish MacGregor Garnier with us. Sandy earned his keep that night back in the summer of 1961 when he saved his family from the intruder, whom I have since thought of as being like a rat, hiding in the dark basement waiting until he could come out of hiding, and do his harm.

My Sandy became a true bi-coastal pooch when he moved out to California with his family!

It was during the winter of 1964-65 when one night I returned home from a date, and I opened my front door; Sandy ran past me out into the night, and down Blossom Hill Road, which is where we were living then. The night was dark, and I was young so I didn't try to follow him. In the morning I went out in my car, and looked for him. I looked and looked, and called his name but I never found my Sandy.

My mother told me that when dogs get old, and they know that their ‘time’ is coming that sometimes they will leave the family they love, and search for a place to rest in peace, away from their family. I don’t know where my mother got this idea that old dogs go away from their homes to die, but it helped me in some way to endure the pain of losing my brave little terrier, Sandy McTavish MacGregor Garnier; my Bi-Coastal Pooch.

This has been a true life story from my life; Carol Garnier Dutra.

Copyright © 2010/2011 by Carol Garnier Dutra
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