The new boyfriend...(let's call him by his name!), Greg, introduced me to his favorite hobby, which he has been doing for many years. It is a relatively inexpensive hobby. It only requires one (preferably) big tool, and you can do it almost anywhere. You can do it while you are alone, or in a group. Actually, it would probably be more fun to do it in a group, although so far Greg and I have only done it together. One evening his buddy and his buddy's girlfriend said they would be interested in doing it with us, so we are considering including them at some point. But first, I think I have to develop a bit more confidence, before I do it with others around.
We have been doing it a lot in Beaconsfield, which is about 7 miles from town...the back-woods area where I grew up. It is quite a good spot to do it, because it is really remote and there is very little traffic, so we can do it by the roadside, beside the farmhouse where I grew up, under a tree in an apple orchard, and even at the abandoned farmhouses near my family's. Mostly we do it on the week-ends or maybe right after work.
Sometimes when we are doing metal-detecting, we find some interesting stuff. Like a 1895 penny (worth about a dollar) or a piece of jewellery which turns out to be gold-plated and is worth absolutely nothing, but is still cool to dig up out of the ground, clean it off, and see what it is. It is also cool to imagine who might have owned that coin or that jewellery, and how they could have lost it. Did they lose the ring under the apply tree when they were picking apples, or was there a little somethin'-somethin'-else going on under the apple tree? We also start to imagine who lived in those old farmhouses a hundred years ago, and how it must have felt to be living in such a remote area, miles from town, with the wind howling through the trees and the moose and deer and coyotes in the woods nearby.
The most interesting thing we found while metal-detecting was a dog. Two days ago, we seemed compelled to go out in the pouring rain to metal-detect, which is unusual behaviour to be sure. We arrived at our destination and it was raining cats and dogs. In fact, when the rain finally let up, and we went to the porch of an abandoned farmhouse, there was a whole dog laying on the porch. When it was raining cats and dogs, this one must have fallen through the dilapidated roof and onto the porch.
It had porcupine quills in its nose, but it was so happy to see us and wagged his tail when Greg petted him. Then the dog slowly crept over into a pile of old papers and layed down...to die?!?!?? I went to my cousin's place and got it some food and water. It ate so fast, and when it was done, I could see blood on the porch from where the porcupine quills drove into its face. Greg and I had to leave the dog there overnight, as we both live in apartments and do not have a place to keep a dog.
The next morning (after we had lost sleep worrying about the dog), Greg went to work, and I was on the phone with Duane Wortman who owns the store Duane's Furniture Store in Woodstock, about 40 minutes away. Duane's guys were going to make a delivery to Greg's place later that day, and I told him I needed to know the exact time as I needed to go out into no-cell-service-territory to rescue a dog. So I told Duane the dog story, and asked him what I should do. He gave me the name of someone on the Board of Directors of the local SPCA. As we were on the phone, Duane said, "You are not going to believe this, but another lady from the SPCA is on the other line". He took a call from Colleen McClusky, told her my story, and within minutes she phoned me. Colleen told me not to leave my place to feed the dog yet, as she wanted to get in touch with the Manager at the SPCA. Within another few minutes, Avis, the manager from the Carleton County Animal Shelter called me. She told me to expect a call from someone who would come and get the dog. Winin a few more minutes, Lyndsey phoned me from the SPCA. Within 2 hours, I was handing over the nice black dog to Lyndsey. I had been able to go back to the abandoned farmhouse, feed the doggy some more food and water, put a leash on him and walk him to my car. Doggy jumped in the back seat, porcupine quills and all, and went for a drive with me to meet Lyndsey where the highway meets the middle of know-where.
I want to thank Duane Wortman, Colleen McClusky, Avis, and Lyndsey for being so responsive and helpful. I work with a lot of nonprofit groups, and I have not seen a bunch of people who are so eager to help and to get 'er done!
Lucky is well-behaved, didn't bark, even though I am sure he was in pain, wanted to cuddle with me in the car, let me lead him around with a leash, likes walks, and loves being petted.
If his owners are not found by Tuesday of next week, he can be adopted at the Debec Animal Shelter. Call them at 506-277-1104.
