Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

Soon enough, I was telling Natasha about our dog Laddie, a true man’s best friend. I told her how among our pets, Laddie was the one who I really felt close to. He was a border collie and what I’d say is the perfect dog for kids. He was the perfect dog for me. The only classical conditioning that mattered to him was that if a person loves him, he would love them as long as he can. 

“I know for a fact that Laddie didn’t live that long — at least in human years; but when I think of him, it’s as if he was with us for the whole of my childhood. At the same time, I can’t specifically recall the thousand things we did together. But I knew I felt happy and safe.”

“I’m sure you did. Wow. Laddie really left a mark on you. He must have been one awesome dog!”

“He really was. You would have loved him. Laddie would have loved you, too.” 

I guess life really feels this way sometimes; our childhood was like a completely different lifetime we lived through, filled with these exciting and wonderful stories. But as we grow older, life seems to spiral down quicker. All the more that this trip with my soon-to-be-wife felt even more special. I felt like we were given the chance to slow our life down and just remember and create good days.

Ian and Laddie

We used to live at 3 York Avenue. That childhood home carried so many memories of me and my brothers just growing up together experiencing life. I can remember that time fondly because that was also when we had Laddie and Poppy. Alistair and I spent so much time playing with them and taking care of them.  

I can still remember Laddie getting into fights with a ‘mad’ dog called Spike that lived opposite our house. Laddie was such a brave and courageous dog, always ready to fight back when attacked by another dog. I can see him in my mind as a large dog, just one size smaller than an Alsatian. Although looking back, it was most likely just from my perspective as a child.  

In contrast to Laddie’s ferociousness towards other dogs like Spike, he would often shrink away defensively from children that tugged at his fur, and try not to retaliate at all. Of course, there’s Poppy. He was certainly scared of her, and the scar on his snout was a daily reminder not to cross her, especially when it comes to leaving Poppy’s dinner alone. Although Poppy and Laddie were polar opposites — Poppy a bratty cat, and Laddie just a friendly dog — the two animals managed to craft a friendship between them that lasted Poppy’s nine lifetimes.

Laddie is ‘Sleeping’

Eventually, we moved to 26 Hob Hey lane and brought all our pets, of course. One day, I came home  from school and asked my mother where Laddie was. At first, she wouldn’t tell me where he was. Laddie had been sick for a while with a swollen stomach. My mother then told me Laddie had ‘gone away’ or some such story. Later, she would finally tell us that Laddie had been ‘put to sleep’.

When you’re a child you often understand euphemisms literally. So I remember thinking “Where is he sleeping, and will he wake up?” My mother finally admitted that the vet had given him an injection to ‘put him to sleep’. 

I remember still waiting for him to come home as I missed him a lot. After some passage of time, the nasty reality started to dawn on me. It seemed like some kind of conspiracy on the part of the grown-ups, whisking him away in secret, and then giving him some nasty injection. I remember questioning my mother more about what seemed to be like a crime, but I finally had to accept the truth.

Passing Away

Laddie’s death was difficult for me to understand, because Laddie was such an active dog before he died. He didn’t seem that old or sick at all; although I remember he had been lounging around the kitchen with his fat stomach looking very sorry for himself just before they secretly whisked him away.

I was still very young when Laddie ‘disappeared’ from our lives. At that time, it felt kind of abrupt. Laddie used to go with us everywhere, until suddenly, he simply wasn’t anymore.  

Around this time, just after my eighth birthday, my grandmother died. Or she didn’t die, but she ‘passed away’. This was another of these mysterious phrases that grown-ups used. I remember thinking, “Where’s she passed to?” – and “When will she return?” It took a little time before the truth dawned on me once again – but I was quicker to figure it out this time, because she had been sick for a long time. 

You can read the complete stories here starting with the previous post:

Travel and Pets | Laughter and Nostalgia | Poppy, the Medieval Princess | Laddie, a Man’s Best Friend | Dogs in the Afterlife