My friends and family know I have a very soft heart. Especially towards animals.
I grew up with Samoyed dogs and Siamese cats, a couple of fish, and my brother Eric had a guinea pig for a while. We are a creature loving family. They made us laugh and cry when one died, but all around gave us many years of love and companionship.
My folks still have cats and love them to no end. I turned out to be more of a dog person, and have loved every single crazy one of them. I currently have a Siberian Husky, “Skyler”(Sky) after the colour of her eyes, and I rescued her from Iran. Long story for another time. My husband’s dog is a 13-year-old huge Golden Retriever named Buddy. Both dogs make us laugh constantly at their antics, and during Covid saved my sanity.
The Bulkley Valley has many furry friends, from big beautiful horses to teeny tiny little Pom dogs. I see an amazing array down main street sometimes and smile to myself. I see many huskies that were adopted after the movie “8 Below”, a Disney film starring Paul Walker that was filmed here. They are beautiful creatures, and Walker loved working with them, he told me, and the fact that people here adopted every single one they used from the movie, 32 or more, I think. Paul Walker was another huge animal lover.
I’ve always been amazed at how supported our pet shelter and animal rescue facilities are. I know many people that volunteer countless hours helping our furry and feathered friends. I see volunteers walking the animals every night, and know folks that donate dog and cat food to the shelter on a regular basis. Very cool, and thank you for everything you do.
Our vets in town are outstanding. I heard from one office that there were so many people coming from Terrace for a good vet that they could hardly keep up.
My vet Mike has gone over and above for many of us, and I know our other vet in town, Kim, does too. We are lucky to have such talented, caring people in our valley, willing to stop everything when we have an emergency.
The support staff in both of the vet offices are top-notch and have shown me much caring, compassion, and kindness when one of my four-legged friends was in trouble. I’ve lived in places where your pet was a number, out of thousands, but not here. Our vets know our families and our pets’ names. How lucky we are.
All this brings me to the heartbreak I experienced this past week. There are several cats in our neighbourhood at work, and I always like to see them and give them a pet. Last night, however, I left the office, as usual, backed out, and hit one. It never occurred to me he would be under the car.
His name was Velcro, and he was a big beautiful grey and white kitty that brought his owner Barb lots of love and companionship. Needless to say, he did not survive, and I feel awful. Horrid that I took a beautiful life, and so very sorry. That doesn’t even come close to explaining the feelings I have. My sorrow is for Barb, and the friend I took from her. And for Velcro for causing him pain. Thank God it was over quick, but still.
I won’t get in my car again without looking underneath first, and I hope you do, too. Take care of your pets in the heat, love them and look after them, as they look after us too.
To Barb and her friend Velcro, you know you have my heart, my forever sorrow for what I did, and my profound apologies.
