Trafford Publishing: Candy: The Big Beautiful Golden Retriever

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Candy: The Big Beautiful Golden Retriever

by T. Morris Fraser

90 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #04-1746; ISBN 1-4120-3938-X; US$14.00, C$15.95, EUR11.50, £8.00

A new approach to dog stories! Candy is a real dog, a big beautiful golden retriever, with all the traits of doghood, but somehow the author has gotten inside her head to see in humor how she perceives her life and the people around her.

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About the Book About the Author Excerpt Catalogue Information

About the Book

This book comprises a series of short stories about a golden retriever dog, told, as it were, in her own words - not in a cutesey-pie, nice doggy sort of way, but more in terms of gentle ironic humor, laced with love. Candy believes she is big, bold, bright and beautiful. Big and beautiful she certainly is, but timid and dumb are perhaps closer descriptions than bold and bright.

However, she always seems to find herself in situations where, more by good luck then good management, she does the right thing at the right time. It is hoped that the adult reading the stories to a child will enjoy the humor, while the child will enjoy the adventure as well.

The book has been successfully test-read to groups of school children of various ages.

About the Author

Although you wouldn't know it from the flow of his writing, T. Morris Fraser is a medical specialist, an engineer, and a retired professor with six technical books and many academic and professional papers to his credit. But clearly his love of dogs is paramount. With a wry humor and a sense of the ridiculous he sees traits in dogs that reflect what they might see in the people and things around them.

Born in Scotland, he has worked in Britain, Switzerland, Asia, the USA, and Canada where he lived as a Canadian citizen for the last 25 years. With his wife, the "Dog Lady", who did most of the work, they operated a breeding and boarding dog kennel from which he derived most of the stories related herein, and where they lived with their beloved Candy.

Excerpt

CHAPTER 4
HOW CANDY WENT FISHING AND OVERCAME THE MONSTER

One day Jeff came out into the backyard. He had a glass jar and a spade and he started digging in the bank near the Hole. I thought he might be looking for fat furry animal or maybe even Skunk, and I wasn't too happy, but digging is fun, and anyway Jeff was there so I put my front paws down and I started digging beside him. Cat sat watching from a tree. The dirt flew out between my hind legs and splattered all over the place. It was great fun until Jeff said: "Hey Candy! No! Mumble, mumble, Mumble, mumble. Worms!"

And he held up the jar. Now, I didn't know what "Worms" was anyway so I put my nose in the hole and sniffed but I couldn't smell anything. At least anything very good. And then I saw a wriggly thing coming out of the place where I was digging. It didn't smell good either. You couldn't eat it. But Jeff jumped at it with excitement and picked it up and put it in the jar and said:

"Good dog, Candy! Worms!"

So now I knew what worms was, and if Jeff was pleased I was pleased, so I wagged my tail and dug some more until we got lots of worms. Then Jeff picked up this long pole thing with a string on the end and said:

"Come on, Candy, mumble, mumble. Let's go fishing!"

Well I didn't know what fishing was but he set off along the trail that goes by the creek at the back of our backyard and I ran alongside. Cat slunk along through the trees. Now, I know that trail. It winds through the Dark Woods along the creek until the creek joins the river. And I know there are lots of Things in these woods. I haven't exactly seen them, but I know. So I have to make sure that these Things don't get to Jeff. I run along the trail ahead of him and round the corner, and sometimes a I dash a little way into the woods just to make sure, and then I run back to Jeff to make sure again that he's still there, or perhaps to keep behind him if some Things actually appear, or perhaps even to make sure he doesn't leave me alone in the Dark Woods with all the Things. I don't think I'd like that. The trail joins another trail where the creek runs into the river. The river is bog. It's bigger than the road that runs along outside our kennel. The water goes quietly by for a long way, nearly as long as it takes for Jeff to walk to School, and then it begins to run faster and faster and splashes against the rocks until it falls over a very steep place where it makes a lot of noise. Jeff sits down on a rock beside the river. I sit beside him wagging my tail and hoping that something good is going to happen. Cat is swishing through the grass, but watching carefully. Jeff opens the jar and I sniff at it expectantly, hoping it might have turned into something to eat, but Jeff says:

"No, Candy. Not good. Worms."

So I go to the edge of the bank and bend forward and put one paw into the water. It feels good. Oh, how I love water! I like to get into it and feel it ripple over me, or it's shallow I like to roll in it and get covered in mud. Honey Babe doesn't like that. She always yells at me when I get covered in mud. She doesn't know how good it feels. I put the other paw in and then I lick the water a little. It doesn't taste very good but it's all right and so I slither my body in until I'm swimming in it. Not swimming like People do. I really just keep walking, with my head and my tail out of the water. It's harder than walking but it's nice to feel the water. So I swim around a little bit and then I climb out on the bank dripping wet. I run up to Jeff and I shake myself and the water sprays all over him. He yelps and yells at me. I don't think he likes the water like I do.

Cat doesn't like the water either. Cat never does swimming, but she goes right to the edge of the bank and lies down and looks very carefully over the edge. I think she's looking for something to eat.

Jeff is sitting watching the string on the end of the pole. The string now stretches away out into the middle of the river. There's a little red bobbing thing at the end of the string and Jeff is watching it carefully. Every now and then it bobs under the water. When it does that Jeff grabs the pole and winds the string in, all excited. Then he looks at the end where the worm is. But it just looks the same except it's a little bit smaller. So he throws it back in again. I don't know what he's trying to do but I guess he must like it.

Then, suddenly, I see the Monster. The Monster is quite a long way down the river, at least the length of the garden from front to back. It's sitting there in the water, just at the edge where the river comes into the bank to make a sandy place where you can walk in and swim. It's big and black and almost round, much bigger than me. And it kicks at the water round it so that the water ripples as it passes. I don't like it. I bark a little, but not too loud, just enough to tell Jeff and Cat that there's a monster down there but I'll protect them - I think. And then I walk carefully along the bank towards it, sniffing all the way. I can't smell anything different, but I know it's a Monster. So I stop and bark at it. It doesn't move, except to ripple the water, but it keeps on looking like a Monster, very black, very threatening, very dangerous. I jump at it, a little bit, not too far, and then I jump back again. It doesn't move. It just keeps on rippling the water, not really paying any attention to me at all. So I bark louder and then I stop and sniff and sniff and sniff, but I still can't smell anything special. Jeff comes up and he stands there watching. He's happy and laughing and I don't know why. Not when there's a Monster around.

"Good dog, Candy girl!" he says. "Go get it!"

But I'm not going to dash in and get a great Monster as big as a big kennel. So I lie down with my paws out in front of me like I did with Cat, but this time I growl and I show the Monster my teeth to let it know what I'm going to do when I reach it. I creep slowly forward until I'm so close I can nearly touch it... And then a Thought strikes me, right through the Fuzz. That Monster doesn't have a smell! Not any Monster smell at all. It just smells like an old wet rock! In fact it is an old wet rock! I feel so silly. But I'm not going to let Jeff know. So I stand up, and I raise my head and put my tail out and I stalk away proudly so that Jeff and Cat will know that I really protected them. But Jeff is still laughing. I don't think he should. Jeff goes back to the pole. I don't think he's very happy with his pole. He was happy when I destroyed the Monster, but I don't think he's very happy with his pole. Now Cat, I think, looks very happy so I go down to see her. I never go very close to her when we are outside. It's different when we are inside. Then she comes and lies beside me or in between my front paws, but when we are outside she is more like an Animal and doesn't like me too close. So I stay away and watch. She is lying at the edge of the bank looking very intently into the water. Suddenly, quick as a flash, she shoots a paw into the water and flicks out something silvery and wriggling on to the bank. I jump forward to grab it but it leaps up and hits my nose. It is cold and wet so I jump back wondering if it will bite me. It doesn't bite me so I go forward again and take it in my mouth. It feels funny in my mouth. It wriggles. It feels like food, but not quite, so I think I'll take it up to Jeff. Meantime Cat is catching more. I take it to Jeff and put it behind him and then I bark to tell Jeff I've got something. But he's still watching his pole and he says, without turning round:

"Not now, Candy! Mumble, mumble, fish."

I don't know what "fish" is, so I go back to Cat and get another one. I pick it up and take it back to Jeff and lay it beside the first one. He doesn't notice so I go and get one more and put it down with the others. They're all lying behind Jeff. I bark again and he turns round. I think he's getting mad. "Candy!" he says. "Stop barking! Mumble, mumble fish!"

Then he sees the silvery things on the ground behind him. He looks at them and doesn't say a word. He looks at his pole. Then he picks it up and winds the string. He looks at the end of the string where the worm is. It's not wriggling any more. He looks back at the silvery things, as if they weren't real. He picks them up and puts them in the bag beside him. He looks at me in a funny way and says, very slowly:

"Where mumble mumble fish, Candy? Did you do that?"

I know what "Did you do that?" means. Honey Babe says it when she thinks I've done something that I shouldn't have. But I haven't done anything wrong so I wag my tail and pant a little with my tongue hanging out as it sometimes does when I'm happy. He picks up the silvery things, the fish, and puts them in the bag beside him.

"I don't know, Candy," he says. "I just don't know."

I look at Cat who is in the grass nearby. She swishes her tail gently, not angry, just gently. I wag mine and we look at each other.

Jeff picks up his pole and his jar. I think he's still wondering. He turns to me and says:

"OK, Candy, let's go Walkies!"

Oh, I do love Walkies!

Catalogue Information