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Ironwork’s Animals: Part One – The Dog Goes all Broadway on us…
March 17, 2011 / Comments (2)
It’s possible that you have all noticed the presence of our animals in some of the photos on our website. For no better reason than the fact that it’s a grey rainy March day and I need a break from the frustration of making labels, I thought it would be amusing to tell you some of the latest adventures – at least of the canine variety. We’ll get to the feline side later.
Harrison is our resident canine – AKA Semi-Subservient Quadruped or Booze Hound. He’s a sweet tempered, laid back kind of guy – a bit loud mouthed when folks arrive unexpectedly but mostly semi-snoozing in the doorway, watching the world go by. We adopted him a little more than eleven years ago – saw him on Petfinder.org. He was rescued from a nasty shelter in North Carolina by a lovely angel of mercy who saw his potential and paid to have him removed from death row, cleaned & vaccinated & set him up for adoption with a local rescue group. We spotted his wacky looking picture, fell instantly in love and showing our unique form of lunacy, drove to Durham, North Carolina in mid winter to pick him up. He’s been at our side ever since. (Almost literally, considering his serious case of separation anxiety..).
Harry’s life has been a busy one – we did a bunch of obedience classes – mostly to make him sane – but he caught on so fast and we had such fun that we just kept going. We did several levels of agility, and Rally Obedience classes – even entered one competition in Rally where he came away with three lovely blue ribbons mostly for showing up and being cute methinks. We qualified to be a St. John’s Therapy team and worked for a spell at the Bloorview Children’s Hospital in Toronto. When I moved to Halifax we would often head over to visit my dad when he lived in Camp Hill Veteran’s residence – it was always such a pleasure to see the smiles he’d get. It pays to have such ears and look like you were designed by Jim Hensen.
Way too cute for his own good.
Then a couple of months ago my fabulous neice, Toven, who teaches drama in the Junior School over at King’s-Edgehill asked so very sweetly, knowing I cannot say no, if Harrison could perform as Sandy in her upcoming presentation of the musical “ANNIE”. Well sure. The rehearsals were pretty funny – minus an audience and with very few of the performers around – Harrison pretty much aced his part. The actual performances were a little trickier since we weren’t able to get over for the full run-through. When you’re a dog, spotlights can be pretty weird when you’re not used to them and “Mummy” is off stage to the left and you’re standing there with some cute little girl who’s belting out “Tomorrow” while hanging onto your rope collar. But he managed – and after the first couple of shows – well he was getting pretty relaxed. Stole the show on the last night – if I do say so myself. Got mobbed by legions of new child fans afterwards.
And now it’s over – hard to say if he’s having post performance blues – mostly he’s just back to sleeping in front of the doorway.
Beany von Doom on March 22, 2011:
You should be proud! He is ridiculously adorable.
David Friendly on April 8, 2011:
I was checking your website to update that of Folk Harbour and came across this description of the Annie performance. What a wonderful curtain call by which to remember Harry. You gave him a happy life. What more could a dog want or need?