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    An Ideal Companion: Short Story
    An Ideal Companion: Short Story
    An Ideal Companion: Short Story
    Ebook47 pages38 minutes

    An Ideal Companion: Short Story

    By Michael Christie

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    About this ebook

    The reluctant owner of a wayward Andalucian wolfhound named Buddy, Dan discovers the immutable bond between man and his best friend. “An Ideal Companion” is part of Michael Christie’s critically acclaimed short-story collection, The Beggar’s Garden.

    The Beggar’s Garden follows a diverse group of characters, from a bank manager to a drug addict to a retired Samaritan, a web designer, and a car thief, as they drift through each other’s lives in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Michael Christie’s darkly funny debut collection won the Vancouver Book Award; it was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.

    HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateNov 13, 2012
    ISBN9781443421799
    An Ideal Companion: Short Story
    Author

    Michael Christie

    MICHAEL CHRISTIE received his MFA in creative writing at the University of British Columbia. Prior to this, he worked in a homeless shelter on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and provided outreach to the severely mentally ill. A former professional skateboarder, he is a senior writer for Color Magazine, an award-winning publication that celebrates skateboarding culture. Michael Christie lives in Thunder Bay, and is working on his next book, a novel.

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      Book preview

      An Ideal Companion - Michael Christie

      An Ideal Companion

      Michael Christie

      Contents

      Cover

      Title Page

      An Ideal Companion

      Copyright

      About the Publisher

      An Ideal Companion

      1

      Before he did a website for a local organic deli for dogs, Dan had never imagined himself a dog owner. None of his friends had dogs and he’d never wanted one as a child. But at some point while camped at his home-office desk, daylight banished by dusty Venetian blinds, somewhere during all that coding, linking, cropping and resizing, Dan flared with a sudden and insatiable interest in dogs.

      He noticed them everywhere. On the street, in his elevator. The breeds were a language he taught himself, a newly discovered planet. He quickly caught on to how much a dog could say about its owner, how people didn’t resemble their dogs by accident, and it sure wasn’t the dogs who did the choosing. He spent countless bloodshot hours at his computer sifting canine images for the dog that would best represent him, finding all the usual breeds too regal, or showy, or boring, or simple-minded. After weeks of frustration, a felicitous click on a rare-breed site brought to his screen a picture of a dog so instantly familiar to him, a dog of such undeniable beauty and grace, Dan could do nothing but settle back into his computer chair, hands dangling at his sides, and allow a great calm to overtake him.

      Originally from southern Spain, the Andalucian wolfhound was a herder, a working dog, not a fashionable furry accessory. During the Spanish Civil War it was used by the Republicans to root out Nationalist ammunition caches as well as keep watch while its masters slept in the woods. An agile dog of medium build with a blunt snout and large ears that rose up like furry candle flames, it had only recently been rescued from extinction. Raredogs.com declared the Andalucian to be making a major comeback, due to its being confident, reliable, proud, undeniably intelligent, an ideal companion, flush with loyalty and a joyous energy.

      Dan could locate only one credible breeder in Canada, a kennel in Saskatchewan stewarded by a couple named Ihor and Sandy Kuziak, whom he emailed before he could weigh the idea any further.

      Their reply came within minutes:

      One Lucian left. Not a puppy. A good dog. Still interested? Sandy and Ihor ;o)

      His disappointment at the lack of a puppy was quelled by an attached picture of a gorgeous chocolate brown dog with white paws and a blue bandana slung round its neck, its head cocked inquisitively, reclining in a patch of crispy prairie grass.

      Who needed a puppy anyway, Dan thought, considering his own age, thirty-six, a number he found hemorrhoidally embarrassing whenever he was required to write it on an application or a form.

      He replied, and the couple sent more information, which he briefly scanned before paying for the dog right then and there, his finger abuzz while clicking Finalize Transaction.

      "You don’t even have a yard," said Dan’s best friend and former bandmate, Winston, in his usual distracted tone, and your square footage is barely double digits.

      Three years ago,

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