ASSINIBOIA — Growing up in rural Saskatchewan offered plenty of opportunities to include the animal kingdom during the holidays. Some are memorable for the chaos they provided while others are memorable because those animals were such a big part of our family.
Christmas 1978 in Assiniboia, the last holiday celebrated in town before we moved to the farm, our dog Happy seemed to be as enthusiastic about Christmas as we were. While this eight-year-old springer spaniel never bothered the tree or the fully decorated house Mom treated us to each year, he was always curious about what was under the tree. However, he certainly did enjoy drinking the fresh water that was placed in the tree stand each day, resulting in more refills each day.
We learned early not to leave anything under the tree while we were away from home but one particularly busy day where we whirlwinded from event to event, we quickly stuck newly gifted boxes of chocolates under the tree never giving them another thought. We were to discover this was an extremely bad idea.
Our favourite neighbors invited us over for cookies, cocoa and conversation around their fireplace so in the flurry of events that day, we neglected to move those boxes of chocolates numbering at least five. This was one quick-thinking canine as Happy realized the error of our ways and exuberantly ate off the top layer of every easily accessible box there for his enjoyment. This was not a ‘happy’ ending, no pun intended, as we returned home to a long night of cleaning up the results of this festive, food frenzy. While dog came through unscathed the memories of those additional decorations that night will never be forgotten.
Once we moved to the farm, it was full-on furry friend enjoyment as we got to enjoy winter, the outdoors, our warm fireplace indoors and festive fun with our fur babies.
Loved the tradition of Dad hooking up his favourite team of horses and taking us for a winter wonderland horse-drawn sleigh ride in the newly fallen snow. Whether these horses were on task or in the corrals, their soothing whinnies and neighs added to the country Christmas experience.
There was always a cat to cuddle, whether in the barn, on our deck, or on the rare occasion we could sneak one inside.
Duke, our bull mastiff, offered the best pawsitive Christmas memories as he loved to sit in the fireplace room with us enjoying whatever we were enjoying or creating some laughs as he snored after comfortably falling into a deep sleep. If we were outside, he was happily romping in the snow with us, never wanting to be left out of family fun.
Rev. Louise at Unity United Church offered many memorable moments that included animal tales. Such as when the wooden camels from the outdoor nativity scene seemed to have ‘wandered off’. Louise put a plea out in church and around town that if anyone saw these wandering cud-chewing mammals to please help them find their way back to complete the outdoor manager scene. With her usual sense of humour, she proudly announced at Sunday service that the camels had indeed been found and they must’ve got confused as instead of finding their way back to the stable, the wandering camels had found their way to a Stabbler. This was the surname of the family that discovered the wooden creatures. You had to hear it in person for it to be as funny as it sounded.
I do fondly remember a Christmas Eve service when the Rev. Louise was teaching kids the nativity story and much to everyone’s surprise, Azure McGonigle’s sister, was in the front pew with a live lamb. That little, soft, woollen creature was quiet and behaved and drew the oohs and aahs from all in attendance helping to add live-action visualization to the story of our first Christmas. This story is talked about every year with our family as we remember this little lamb surprise.
Since growing up and moving out on our own and starting our own families, cat tales have been the holiday story of the week shared amongst family members. Whether it is rescuing a newly acquired kitten from the tree that he thought he could run up in, or reconfiguring ornaments regularly so they weren’t batted off or around the house. Our current KC Rescue cat has never been up or in the tree but she takes a certain shine to certain ornaments and does her best to acquire them as her newest toys.
