Meeting Gon-ba-mo

Isn't it wonderful how stories, songs, prayers and Dear Friends keep dogs and humans free from fear and anxiety? We forgot our cold feet and empty tummies as we listened to our friends tell their stories. Now many of you have asked me for MY story but I am not being modest when I tell you I really don't have one compared to my Gang friends.

I was born in Duncan on Vancouver Island and Mom and DOD came and got me when I was a puppy. They took me to Saturna Island where I have lived ever since (when I am not in Arizona or out on an adventure) Of course I have traveled to many countries by magic and made many friends, dogs, humans, ghosts, witches, elves, dragons and faeries from every walk of life and every world. I have been blessed.

Anyway, here we are on a mountain ledge somewhere in the high Himalayas inching our way toward what we hope is a village. Bells are ringing and voices are chanting....

And then, we heard barking! We looked at each other....no it was not one of us.... I was worried for a moment that one of us had gone barking mad...it can happen to dogs and humans. We strained our eyes and peered into the fading light ...a little snow-covered dog came into view. He/She/it shook itself and it looked just like Bond. 'Hawwoooo', it called and again 'Hawwooo'. Margaret said 'it is trying to say Hello but it has an accent, lets all say Hello right back'. And so we did, in unison and loudly. HELLO! The little black and white dog laughed and ran toward us.

My name is Gon-ba-mo she said (she spoke a language we could all understand albeit with a strange accent) I am a girl dog and I am magical....that's what my name means. Who are you she asked? So we introduced ourselves one by one calling out our names over the sound of the howling wind.  She was very surprised at how we were all so different in size and colour (or at least the colour she could see as we were now mostly white) and she said she had never seen Margaret's Breed before. Bond was the only dog she recognized and she gave him a big smile and a wink. She wanted to know how we had got to the mountain pass as she told us no dog nor human had come from the outside for centuries. We told her we would tell all later but at this time we were too tired and cold to have a conversation and we would all fall off the mountain and die if she couldn't help us.

Follow me, she said and Bond took her curly tail in his mouth and we followed her.

Gon-ba-mo

Lucy's Story

 Even though we were hurrying as fast as we could the distance to the village didn't seem to get any shorter, the bells and voices any closer. We struggled on.

Then because we had enjoyed Blue's story so much I sent a text to Lucy's humans, Frances and Cathy, and asked them to send me Lucy's story. They did, and this is it:

 "Walking back from dinner in Nogales, Sonora several years ago, we stumbled upon a small dog covered with motor oil and living in a parking space on a side street near the border. We reached down to pull her out of the street and to our surprise, she rolled over for a belly rub.  Clearly, she had been through hell in her short life, yet she trusted us. As the little dog furiously licked my hand, lapping up the rare affection and craving more, we noticed that the little dog could not put any pressure on her right hind leg. 

Since she had no way to hunt for food on her own, she must be completely dependent upon the kindness of strangers for survival. We convinced ourselves that the pail of water we saw near the little dog’s parking space was put there by a kind soul.  We concluded that it was more likely air conditioning runoff. We had to find a way to help this little dog, so the next day, we crossed the border in our car.  We made a couple of passes down the street but did not see her.  Where was she? On our third trip, there she was sitting in her parking space!  We had a plan but we were worried that someone might claim her as we kidnapped her from the street.  Of course, no one objected when we scooped her up in a blanket and put her in the back seat of our Subaru.  We headed for the border where a casual border agent waved us through after concluding “Lucy” as dubbed her was not “livestock”.

We were thrilled on the ride home. Our spirits were soaring.  We thought of the starfish fable….maybe you can’t save them all but you can make a real difference in the life of one little dog.  In our home, she welcomed our loving attention and care.  She slept like a baby, maybe the first full night of sleep she has had in her life. 

We took her to the vet the next day and Lucy had a complete work-up.  Amazingly, she was in fairly good shape. She had a skin condition that produced painful sores throughout her coat.  At some point, Lucy’s hind leg had been broken and had healed badly.  More than likely a car had hit her. Despite two vets saying she wasn’t pregnant, she was, as unfortunately so many strays are. Lucy delivered four healthy puppies one month after her arrival. Because we already had four other animal rescues in our home, we made the difficult decision to find a home for her once her puppies were old enough to be adopted out.

However, as she cared for her puppies and began to heal, we fell in love with Lucy as her true personality came out. We quickly learned why she survived on the streets of Nogales, Mexico.  She demanded love from us as she had that night in Nogales. When provided with nutritious food, fresh water, treats and love, Lucy thrived, even craved love. Though she had a few “accidents” and chewed a few pairs of shoes, we knew this was all to be expected due to the inevitable anxiety of such new surroundings. Lucy’s four puppies all went to good homes, one male pup, Dudley, lives just across the street from us.

It was plain to us that Lucy was becoming a member of the family. We could never give her up and we never did. Now, she is the ranking Alpha dog in our pack. Lucy continues to give so much more to us than we ever gave to her. We are the lucky ones. She is a funny, grateful dog who loves to roll in the green grass in our park nearby. Lucy’s day is not complete without three walks along the De Anza trail behind our house. Lucy is home and we all are enriched for it".

I just love these 'reality stories' don't you???  they make the journey so much more interesting. 

Now we can see the lights of the village...we are almost there. 

Who will tell their story next???

Blue's Story

I bet you have been wondering where we have been? Well, I had to go to Arizona with Bond, Mom and DOD. You see, with magic anything is possible, and I can flip in and out of our adventure...so now I am ready to go back to the cold, snowy, high country and the dangerous mountain ledge where we are inching our way forward toward chanting voices.


I hate heights and to tell the truth I was afraid. This ledge is only a couple of feet wide and I didn't dare look down.  I could hear Lucy talking in Spanish, whether she was swearing or praying I couldn't tell. Bond was up front and he looked fearless padding on his snowshoe feet. Dear old Blue talked to him to keep him focused and thought it a good time to tell his story to Bond. Of course we all wanted to hear so we bunched up even closer together and Blue began:

   'This is my story young fella....I was put in a shelter in Cranbrook as a pup, a lot of people came by but no-one wanted me and every so often there was talk of the 'big sleep'....this had me worried, but at last a lovely lady named Ruth and her husband took me to what what was to be my furever home! So I spent my youth hiking in the Rocky Mountains, often in the snow. Then sadly Ruth's husband died and we moved in with her daughter in Calgary--wild weather there--in fact it may be snowing right now! Then we all moved to Vancouver, and I hated it. It rained all the time and I barked all the time, and that meant the  landlord was going to kick us all out----An appointment was made again for the 'Big Sleep'. 
I was apparently too old by this time for another furever home. My family was so sad and I was very anxious. But THEN...the RestQ people on Galiano heard of my plight and I ended up at Bonnie's OK Dog Corral for a week, where I met my now Sister, Inka. She said it was okay for me to come and live with her and Lynne, so here I am. and how I am hoping we find the place where time goes backwards, where I can show you what I was like as a young fellow. In the meantime, if I can help with trekking in the snow just let me know'


We all liked hearing Blue's story and wondered how humans could give up their fur baby's, but we didn't say anything because our Dear Margaret is not that kind of human and we didn't want to make her feel bad about the other kind. We held on even tighter to each other ...feeling those ties of friendship and family ...and crept forward inch by inch over the crunchy, slippery snow and ice.....Bond in the lead, then Blue, then Tansy, Margaret, Inka, Lucy and Me/Robbie bringing up the rear and enjoying even in our hour of peril, looking at Lucy's bum!

Margaret, Tansy, Inka and Lucy were real good sports and never once complained....and I know I promised not to mention Tansy's short legs ever again....but her poor little belly was in the snow most of the time and she was darned near frozen to death. Margaret offered to carry her but it was far too dangerous and I just couldn't allow it. Blue was stoic but I could tell he was tiring....I was feeling desperate.... we were all weak, hungry and cold.

Bond barked like mad, he often does for no reason so we didn't pay much attention ...but LOOK! LOOK GANG!
We looked into the dawn light. A Village? People? Shangri-La?
OH MY..we were still far away but we we knew we could make it...we listened to the bells and the chanting voices...WOW !!!
We picked up our feet and hurried as fast as we dared.....