A2 - Wednesday, December 24, 1980 - North Shore News

A strictly personal

by Bob Hunter

Divine forgiveness

This was back on the

Dress properly. Keep your
mocassins dry. Take along
extra candle wicks to lash
your feet to the snowshoes.

When you pitch camp,
burrow a hole in a snowdrift
and soon your breath is
enough to make an icy shell

around you, like a buried
igloo.

eee

I never brought a tent with
me because the only tents
available were bulky affairs
made of canvas. Once the
canvas stiffened, that was it.

So I only had a sleeping
bag in my pack as I crunched
across the hard-backed

snow, looking for a place to
burrow.

As the light faded, the
temperature dropped.

I was in hilly pme tree
country near Kenora, not
many miles cast of the
beginning of the Laurentian
Plateau and the end -of the
Great Plains.

I couldn't find the nght
place to dig my shelter, and I
waited too long to make a
fire. I realized I hadn't felt a
single sensation in my feet
for a long time. My fingers
were useless wooden claws.

The moon was already
above the horizon when a
figure materialized out of the
gathering shadows, giving
me a terrific scare.

It was a young Indian,

DORIS ORR FACES HER ANNUAL HEARTBREAK

‘No room at the inn’ for unwanted pets

By CHRIS LLOYD

North Vancouver resident Doms Orr has been
preparing herself for a day of mixed emotions

while gearing up for her

Chnstmas Eves as frantic
for her as just about anyonc
who s rusiung through thew
last-minute shopping, c1ccpt
she docan't usually cven
have lime to get acar a store

And onlike most pcopic
caught up in the cicttcmcnt
of Christmas, for Mr. On
today ts likely to give ber as
much sadness as it docs joy

She capects to find homcs
for about a dozen of the
young dogs iw her care for
placing But if past
Chinstmas Eves are anything
to go by, every onc of them
will be replaced by an older
dog that a family has dcoadcd

Christmas
cover photo

Thee Obwivemees sccere of
the cover of thi tesac
shows stmdcuts of West
Bay Ehesecmary School ip
the antivity play pat om by
the West Vancoever
School. (Ellsworth

Dickson photo)

busiest day of the year.

st doesn't need

In the 15 years she has
devoted to being a fullumc
and unpaid placement
service for stray and un
wanted pects, thousands of
dogs and cats have passcd
through her care And cvcry
Christmas Eve becomes
buazcr than the last

It as a day when many
people come to her to takc
puppies as gifts for children
but when just as many icave
her with oldcr dogs thcy
have deciled to give up
rather than pay for boarding
while the family is away for
the Christmas holiday

NORTH VANCOUVER

WOON LEE INN

a

aA F eR

3751 Delbwook Ave.

AT DELBROOK PLAZA

TAKE OUT.
eno 986-7922
Hoenn: Tuns.-Set. 4-1 pune
Sem. fpen-lOpen
Open Boxing Day
VEGA - MASTERCRARGE

carrying a rifle, who politely
tatroduced himself and told
me I was trespassing on his
property.

I explained I was out
camping, that I was lost, and
that I was freezing to death.

Immediately, he set to
work making a fire, removed
my mocassins, and told me
to rub my feet very gently.
While I sat on my sleeping
bag by the fire, he vanished,
then returned with a freshly-
caught rabbit.

He showed me how to
cook it until juice ran from
the marrow. Then, as I ate,
he built a much larger fire on
flat rock and instructed me
to lay my bag down in the
ashes when the fire was over.

The heat trapped in the
rock would keep me alive
through the night.

Since Mrs. Orr became
the subject of court action
brought against her by North
Vancouver City under
bylaws relating to dogs and
cats she has been able to
khecp fewer animals at her
home and has been rclying
more on the help of a local
vetennanan’s hospital which
boards her overflow while
they are awaiting homes

GETTING WORSE

However. Christmas

provides an additional
pressure there too “At
Chiistmas time all the

kennels are full and there 13
no room at the tan for the
orphans,” she says

It as) adult dogs. usually
between three and five
years, that tend to get

dumped by thew owners at
Chnstmas time for the sake
of convemence, she says,
adding “People who do that
should never allowed to have
another pet ~

“Its getting worse every
year finding places and
people should be aware of
that and run nght down to
their vet and get their
animals spayed or neutered
so we don't have to add to
the problem ~

Younger animais do not
usually cxpenence the same
difficulty finding homes at
Christmas

“We've been lucky with
peoplic coming in at the last
minute to get pets for
Christmas in previoun

years.” Mrs Orr says
“T get hardly any of the
animals back after Christmas

Herm atlast, the book about
Whistieg ie fay ahandf{ul of
Gelerpiried Os kiPt&. Trans
Torneo Sumner
ber ae

fergetys
ANTE Dy

mTanity woud

AAR LP STINALIGN Legert,

Hust latedd with ane and

VAG pratogrank «,

as 1 am very fortunate in
finding responsible homes

CONTINUED ON PAGE A4

But I didn’t sleep mu
Before he left, the In ch.

told me he was a pure-blood
Huron. :

I could distinctly
remember reading in school
that the Hurons had been
massacred back in the early.
days of the fur trade, and’:
that their nation, Huropj
had been destroyed. ,

It was strange to be saved
by one of the ghosts of
history, a man whose
country had been swallowed
up by mine.

Who could have left me
there to freeze.

Who didn't. 1

And sometimes, when it
snows, I wonder: Why is it
no one mourns Huronia? A
good people, the Hurons.

WAITING FOR
HOMES, these are just
some of the animals tn

the temporary care of
Doris Orr. Several of
the younger cats and
dogs will be accepted
today, for Christmas
presents, but these will
be replaced by older
animals whose owners
won't pay for board over
the holiday period.

WONG'S WOK,

Gourmet Cantonese Cussine

LER

SEE JACK
AL makes CQ NOLSE

when he cook's af

M4

wedy

Yours table

SAMURAI
JAPANESE
VILLAGE
Steak House

vat

Pees kt

83 Chesterfield Ave. NV,
986-1155

Lures CHOC

NEW YEAR’S EVE
DINNER

15 75 per person

froffe sat