I was visiting Canadian friends in Toronto after working with them in
London years earlier. This was my first visit to Canada, and I was really looking
forward to it. I planned to cross the entire country and then head down
through Seattle and along the west coast to LA. It was late autumn and all
of the Ontario and Ottawa trees were on fire with wild colours.
After getting used to Toronto in those first early days, I asked about the long regular and anguished howls which seemed to endure for sixty seconds at a time. Day and night there was no stopping the sound of wild dogs or wolves or whatever they were. David explained that lots of dogs howled as winter approached and that it was their own dog making most of the noise. It was a pure-bred Husky and was fully trained to haul people and goods along the snow trails as part of a pack. Their dog was named Artouk which translates to ‘Leader’ in Eskimo language. The colder it got as winter crept closer, the louder and longer became his howling. He couldn’t wait for snowfall.
I loved this dog and walked it every day. I even started doing long plaintiff howls with him. Artouk was really intelligent and kept showing off to me all the time. No wonder he was leader of the pack! When the time came, I was more upset leaving this incredible dog behind than I was saying goodbye to David and Kath!
Two years later I was trying to settle down to life in Canberra after leaving
the family home down in Melbourne. I had started to get serious about
running marathons and training six days a week. When my neighbour’s
dog produced a litter of Golden Retriever looking pups, they gave me
first selection, so I chose the first-born dog and after a few days I named her
Artouk Two (but Tookie for short). She was a crossbred but beautiful, stubborn,
and bossy. She even started to howl at the moon after I spent weeks teaching
her. When she was a little older, she started to run with me every day. She
couldn’t stand to be left behind and would create a terrible yapping noise if I
did leave her so there was no choice!
It didn’t matter whether it was a 6km jog or a thirty km strength run, Artouk would not be left behind! If it was a really hot day, I would tie her up then drive away without her. Then she would sulk for hours when I got home. The daily run was part of her life as it was for me. She even learned all the routes and if there was a short-cut, she would take it! One of the runs was around Lake Ginninderra on Canberra’s North. After a few trials runs there Artouk learned to swim 200 metres across a narrow section of water thereby cutting 2.5kms off the perimeter track and she would be waiting for me to come around the bend and join her.
She never missed a run in seven years, and it came as a shock one day when she refused to join me and just laid there and watched me run off alone. She was still waiting there when I got back. The next morning, she wouldn’t run with me again so away we went to the vet.
Two hours later I buried her on a nearby hill overlooking the Bonogin Valley near Mudgeeraba. The vet said she couldn’t be saved due to tick infections and damage done to her organs.
There could never be another Artouk, but even now I sometimes see her gold and while colours and as she races beside me on a run.
Artouk One lies buried in a private garden in Toronto. An indicator of how important Tookie was to our family is on record because the first word
our daughter Jordana ever said was “Tookie”.
How beautiful is that! Tookie was part of the family and was really well-known in the suburb around us. Apparently, she would go wandering most days and would call in at neighbours for snacks. Thirty years on I still miss her.
So many people wanted to know where the ‘weird’ name came from. Well now you all know.
John Wilson, Gold Coast, January 2021
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