Hey ,

The Honda Celebration of Light in Vancouver is a spectacular event. Three teams from different countries compete to put on the most spectacular fireworks show over the harbour. Each year the shores are packed, boats cram the waterways, and anyone with a balcony overlooking the show suddenly has dozens of friends come out of the woodwork.

During the festival one year a colleague of mine had her kids with her to watch the show. When the evening was winding down she saw a man accosting a woman in the crowd. To my horror, she relayed how she grabbed her kids and got them out of there as quickly as she could. Not being a parent myself at that time, I couldn't believe how she could not step in and help. She explained that this guy could have had a knife or a gun, that she had no idea what was happening there. That her one and only priority was making sure her kids were safe.

When I came up with a cunning plan to avoid de-sexing Nova I didn't anticipate that this would be at odds with the need to do the right thing. That ultimately it would come down to doing what you didn't want to do, putting something you loved at risk, not because you wanted to do but because it was the right thing to do.

Read more below in Chapter 11 - The Plan.

If you missed the last chapter you can get caught up here and you can now buy Nova's Tale as an e-book or a paperback by following this link here. Thanks for your support and enjoy!

Chapter 11

The Plan

My strategy for preventing something from happening is an easy one. The first step is to delay it. The second step is to keep doing the first step until it’s no longer an issue. The genius lies in its simplicity. 

I immediately applied this to the de-sexing issue with Nova. Yvette the vet had unwittingly offered me the key to the entire plan: if he did not have an adequate layer of fat he would not be able to handle the anaesthetic and would not be able to undergo the operation that would remove his manhood, change him forever, and paint me for the rest of my life with the colours of a traitor. I couldn’t change his diet without Danielle catching wind of my plan and so I had only one choice. 

Nova was about to become the most active dog in Australia. 

Having recently started running myself, it was natural to bring Nova along with me to encourage this new active lifestyle. Our regular walk was a 2.5km circuit around the neighbourhood. I decided this would work well for our first run together. Nova had been doing very well off-leash and so I decided that that would be the best way to run with him too. 

The first leg of our run was pure confusion. Nova had no idea what I was doing. Why are you running? Why are your legs moving so fast? Why do you still seem to be going so slowly? What am I supposed to do? I persevered and just kept going with the hope that he would figure it out. 

He didn’t. 

On a normal walk Nova will crisscross the path as he sniffs different bushes or patches of grass that interest him. Now that I was jogging he just did the exact same thing a little faster. This resulted in numerous ass-over-tea kettle moments when Nova decided to cross directly in front of me to get to a particularly delicious smelling telephone poll. I decided to speed up my run and see if that worked.

It didn’t. 

Nova has two rules: if it stays still I’m going to smell/lick it. If it moves fast I’m going to chase it. As soon as I picked up my pace Nova thought the chase was on! All of the sudden I had this gangly dog nipping at my heels, circling in front of me to jump on my waist, and having the time of his life. Nova, and the neighbours watching all of this, thought it was fantastic. 

It wasn’t. 

I backed off my pace and, through trial and error, found a nice compromise that was beginning to work well. As we rounded the last corner of the route I was thinking to myself that we had finally cracked it. Then Nova disappeared. I looked down to my side and he simply was not there. Alarmed, I looked over my shoulder and there he was, about 30 feet back, squatting on somebody’s lawn relieving himself. Sighing, I grabbed a blue bag from my pocket to go clean up his mess. As I picked up a warm mass of Nova excrement I realised that I now had to carry this hot bag of shit for the rest of our run. I wondered why I thought that running together was a great plan. 

It wasn’t. 

We weren’t about to give up on this new, active lifestyle though. Nova needed to be a lean, mean, ball-having machine. The following week we ventured out towards the river. Danielle had to be picked up from work at 5:30pm and so we had a good hour to kill. We had lived in the area by the river when we first moved to Townsville and so I knew that there was a dog park there beside the water. Nova and I went to check it out. 

The dog park was a large fenced area between the river path and the water. It was full of grass, obstacles, trees, benches, and water fountains. We arrived and it was already bustling with activity. All different sorts of dogs were running around chasing each other. The really social dogs played in a large group while the loners wandered through the bushes. All of the dog owners stood along the perimeter in little clumps watching their companions run around. Nova was desperate to get inside. 

He sat and waited for me to open the gate. When I gave him the ok he blasted into that park like a rocket. He went straight into the middle of the fray and deployed Nova Tactic #1: lick wildly! The other dogs all welcomed him into the fray and they were all running in a pack within minutes. I took up my post next to another guy and set to watching Nova race around and maintain his fat-free stature. 

Sean introduced himself to me and we immediately liked each other. He was the owner of Aries who, as it turned out, was the other German Shepherd at the park. Aries was a few months older than Nova but had the classic short-haired coat. With Nova’s extra layer of poofy fur they were almost identical in size. Just like Sean and I, Nova and Aries immediately hit it off. Now, every small dog who ran away from one German Shepherd would soon find two chasing him down. They would pin their ears and sprint at top speed after the other dogs until they were caught. When they caught their prey it was a massive lick-fest until the next dog decided to run. 

As the dogs played we got to talking. Sean and I discussed all the trials and tribulations about owning a shepherd. We realised that both Nova and Aries share the same shepherd mannerisms. They both mouth other dogs’ necks without ever really biting down. Neither Aries or Nova lifts a leg to pee yet. They both drink like the goal is to spray water as far as possible from the bowl. We laughed and talked while the dogs ran and ran.

It wasn’t long before I decided that the dog park was the ticket. If I brought Nova here before picking up Danielle from work each day he would remain slim and trim and intact. 

I left the dog park feeling fantastic. As Nova and I walked back to the car a small terrier came tearing out of the bushes followed by a girl who looked to be in her late twenties. She was screaming “BRUCE!” and yelling “COME!” at him in a terrible voice. The dog, Bruce I assumed, obviously had no interest in coming. She continued screaming at him until eventually she got close enough to grab his collar. She then took her other hand and whipped down her leash on Bruce’s back. I was dumbfounded but she did it again. The third time Bruce managed to wriggle away and he took off again. She resumed her chasing and screaming until they were out of sight.

I stood in shock for a moment. Why in the world would a dog want to come to you if all you are going to do when he gets there is whip him with a leash? How clueless do you have to be to think that was a good idea? The whole ordeal left me feeling unsettled. 

I hoisted Nova in the car and saw Sean across the parking lot. He came over. 

“Nova’s going to be old enough for the big operation soon, eh?” 

“Oh, umm, yup.” I replied. 

“Well good luck with that - I know some lads struggle with it.” He said with a laugh and then he was gone. 

The ride home was a long one. I kept thinking about Bruce and more and more I was ashamed that I hadn’t stepped in to help. It made me remember living next to a battered women’s shelter when we first moved to Townsville. One night there was an altercation outside of my house between a few of the locals. There was a woman hitting a man repeatedly with something I couldn’t quite see. He was blocking the blows but eventually got tired of it and shoved her to the ground. I watched from my house and kept asking myself why I wasn’t getting out there to help. Then I thought of Danielle in the house. I thought of what I didn’t know – what if there was a knife out there? I didn’t know their situation. I didn’t know why they were attacking each other. I slid the door closed and locked it. I felt the same shame then as I did for not helping Bruce.

When Danielle and I got home that night my mind was running fast; my predisposition to be against de-sexing juxtaposed with the knowledge that sometimes you have to do something not because it’s what’s easy or comfortable, but because it’s the right thing to do. We got out of the car and there was a commotion across the street. In the top flat of the house directly across from ours there was a screaming match between a teenage girl and her parents. The door slammed and a girl came down the stairs, crying. 

We walked inside but I kept my shoes on and told Danielle I was going to check on her. The shame of Bruce weighing heavily on my mind I realised that sometimes you have to unlock your door and just do the right thing. Nova trotted out with me and we walked down the road and found the young girl sitting on the curb. I introduced myself and found out her name was Stephanie. She was fine but had just had a rather spirited fight with her parents. It’s what teenagers do, I guess. 

Nova and I sat with her for a while and listened to her story. I have no idea if it was true or not but I didn’t really care. I offered her support if she needed it and let her know that she was always welcome to come by our house if she needed someone to talk to. Through tears she smiled at me and said a shy thanks. 

Nova and I walked home and I felt good. I made a silent promise to help Bruce if I ever saw him again. Sometimes doing the right thing is hard and makes you uncomfortable, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. 

We came home and I told Danielle about Stephanie and assured her that all was well. I hesitated for a moment before adding that we should up Nova’s diet a bit to try and add a bit of fat to him. 

He was going to need it for his de-sexing operation.

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