Bob Berlinghof and Jim Johnston offered to teach me how to improve my tennis game along with a few other ladies, and I accepted eagerly. As a child I had played ice hockey and baseball well, and was good on a slalom ski, but I had not had access to tennis courts and didn’t play well. Mac was an avid (and rather good) player, and if I improved my game we could play together! With that plan in mind, I invested in a good tennis raquet and headed for the Gingerbread courts.
Bob and Jim were excellent teachers, and once I learned how to plant my feet properly my game improved dramatically. They taught me how to turn my body while swinging and how to throw the ball while serving, and soon I was playing a decent game of tennis. Maranne took lessons at the same time which was great, we became quite evenly matched and played some pretty competitive matches as a result.
One day I drove down to the courts and realized that Bear, Mac’s large black dog, had followed my car all the way to the Gingerbread complex. This wasn’t good, there were several sheep grazing nearby and Bear was notorious for killing sheep. Telling the group gathered on the courts that I would be right back, I grabbed Bear by the collar and hauled him to the Pizzeria. This wasn’t easy, Bear outweighed me and was extremely muscular, but I managed to get him up the stairs and into the kitchen. I explained to a very wide-eyed staff that I needed to stick Bear in the store-room while I played tennis, and that I would be back in an hour or so. Under NO circumstance were they to open that store-room door, I didn’t want the dog to get loose. There was no need to warn them twice, Bear was very intimidating!
I forgot about Bear as we played game after game of tennis that afternoon, the fact that my dog was in the restaurant’s storeroom had disappeared from my memory bank. When one of the Pizzeria staff interrupted our game to tell me a dolphin boat was in front of the restaurant I apologized to my friends, we needed fish and I had to go. Promising to return, I hurried to deal with the fishermen waiting for me on the bayside.
The men had a lot of fish in the boat, and I stopped to select the ones I wanted and watched as they were weighed. One of the fishermen then followed me up the path for the cheque, stopping at the dining room entrance while I went to get my purse from the store-room. Whoops! My purse was of course not the only thing in the store-room! A very impatient Bear was ready and waiting on the other side of the door, and charged past me in a flash when I opened it. The staff leaped aside in fright as the huge dog raced across the kitchen and through the swinging doors, an anxious owner in hot pursuit.
Bear was a sight to behold. He gave the startled fisherman a snarl, but ignored him as he grabbed a passing chicken by the neck. Tossing the dead bird to one side, he pounced on and killed a stray cat in the yard. This all happened within seconds, and the fisherman was understandably shaken as he scurried to the safety of his boat. He had no way of knowing that Bear never attacked people, and I felt badly that my dog had given him such a fright. Upset by the killing spree, I loaded Bear into the car and drove home.
Mac laughed when I told him about his dog’s behavior (yes, Bear was HIS dog, not mine!) but I was not even remotely amused, that dog killed any animal in its path and needed to be controlled. As far as Mac was concerned his dog could do no wrong, and to top it all off the man never DID play tennis with me!