Annu of the North: Proud, Fierce and Brave

By Brian Thomas Etheredge

Annu is a story of the wonderful companionship that a man can have with his dog and the loving support they give to each other. Annu, a black Labrador retriever, has the life that every dog might yearn for: a devoted owner and a home on a vast cranberry bog in the idyllic north woods of Wisconsin. The author paints a vivid word picture of the natural beauty that he and Annu share. Her engaging conversations with the author and her animal friends cover many aspects of life, nature, and beauty. Each night by the fire, the author reads in his favorite chair while Annu sleeps at his feet. Upon awakening, Annu is eager for her walk in the woods under the beautiful northern night sky with her owner by her side.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 31, 2009
• ISBN: 9781469106076

Brian Thomas Etheredge

Brian Thomas Etheredge vacationed every summer with his family in the northern Wisconsin. He grew up determined to live and work in the North Woods. Prior to his move up north, he served on the staff at the Illinois State Museum. His professional interest was in fine art photography, which was recognized by Chicago magazine, Chicago Tribune, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Tragically, Brian lost his life in an automobile accident while on a hunting trip. He was working on a second manuscript. Annu, visibly affected by the loss of “her man,” died a few days later from complications of epilepsy. Brian’s family and friends cherish the memory of a remarkable man and his big beloved dog.

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Copyright © 2009 by Brian Thomas Etheredge.

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Contents

PROLOGUE

ANNU’S GLOSSARY

CHAPTER I

The Farmhouse Setting

CHAPTER II

The Vet

CHAPTER III

The Raccoon

CHAPTER IV

The Fox

CHAPTER V

The Beaver

CHAPTER VI

The Discoverers

For my dear friend, Alena

who woke me from a long, deep sleep,

and thereby helped to write

this book.

PROLOGUE

Annu is very old now, and in people years, I am hardly much younger. Her face is gray, and her joints won’t allow her to move about with anything like her old vigor. But still, late every night, when most folks are already snugged in their beds, we manage to walk out under the stars, and there, do we dare dream of our younger, easier days.

As I write this, the leaves are down again, and a dusting of snow lies somber in the fields and in the woods. The lake sleeps under a skim of ice, and beyond it, the sun has disappeared in splendid hues of red and lavender. In my hearth, flames dance on the few poor pieces of sugar maple; and here beside the warmth of the fire lies Annu, snoring. These days, she is not agile enough to climb up on furniture and so makes her bed nearer the floor on an old Hudson’s Bay blanket. Every time I get up to put a new piece of wood on the fire, I pause to stroke her head, and I say, Be careful in your sleep, Big Girl, you never know where dreams may take you.

—     —     —

And now, my readers, no matter what your age, for I know you must all be young at heart, I would like to relate a little story. I have it on good account for it was told to me by none other than Annu herself—a more engaging storyteller one could never hope to meet.

For my part, I will endeavor to tell the story as accurately and as true to the spirit of her words as possible. This I must do within my own small abilities as a writer, and it is my sincerest hope that this most delightful tale does not suffer unduly beneath my heavy hand and that you will, of course, find it wholly entertaining. Still, I cannot help but wish you could have overheard the story as Annu first told it to me.

Before we go further, a thought occurs that it might be a good thing to clarify a point as it relates to Annu’s name and the written word. In reading this text, it may prove only a trifling thing, but if you ever have the pleasure of meeting her (and I certainly hope you do), proper pronunciation may go a long way in avoiding much confusion and hurt feelings. Names are very important to her as you will soon see. The easiest way to explain it is to say that Annu is pronounced as on-new and most definitely not as Ann-new or, heaven forbid, as Ann-uh. That should explain it.

Now, Annu herself is a creature of some most interesting attitudes and peculiarities. She has always been and remains so now even in her old age. But please do not let these words lead you to think her strange. Nothing could be further from the truth. It can honestly be said that any and all of her little eccentricities have always been born of nothing but a great love of fun. To twist a word, to entertain, and to make people laugh—these are what she loves to do most for all of her friends and those she happens to meet. In her company, the common becomes poetic and the tragic, well, mostly humorous.

Annu’s favorite pastime, perhaps above all others, is that of creating new names for herself and also having her friends rename her. A funny penchant, possibly, but she likes to say, What’s in a name? Nothing and everything! What else in the entire world is everything and nothing all at once? Can you tell me? One realizes that it would be best not to even offer a guess.

Routinely, she creates a new name for herself as often as once a week and has been known on occasion to rename herself several times in a single day. It can be exhausting work to keep up with her. Over the years, one could only chance to arrive at the number of names she has owned. One thing about her—and I haven’t the strength to ask—is that, I believe, she would remember and know them all! One day, I may find out.

During the wonderful time I’ve known her, I can recall her using some of the most interesting titles, many of which I gave her myself. Most of these lasted only as long as it took to think up a new one. Though a few that she was particularly fond of might surface again and fall back for a time into common usage. Sometimes, this would happen years after the fact. A few of her favorites are (and these are in no known order) the following: Babushka, Huska, Noser, Husko, Harriett, Black Buffalo Girl, Big Girl, Little Girl, Annette, Marcy, Child, Little Child, Big Child, Judy, Bonkers, Miss Belvoir, Anastasia, Lubyanka, Lenore, Pat, and Porka. Oh, yes, and of course, Annu the Dog Princess. This last is but one of the few instances in which she ever allowed the term dog to be directly associated with her. These are just a few of her names that come quickly to mind but at the expense of exhausting the reader before the story has even begun; they should suffice to illustrate her love of such things.

Most of the names Annu has chosen for herself or accepted from friends seem to suit her quite well or at least the occasion from which they arose. One I have never quite reconciled with is Marcy, which she loves, and I think is totally out of character for her. She thought it up years ago under what inspiration I do not know, but even today you can rouse her from the deepest sleep by saying, Come on, Marcy, let’s take a walk. Come on there! And presently, she will rise up slowly on stiff joints and follow at your heels right to the door.

But then she might say, Why did you call me Marcy?

And you might reply, Because that’s one of your names, isn’t it? I thought you liked it.

Oh, that was long ago, but I’ll look beyond it, she would say. And then she might look at the sky or some other distraction and say, You can see this is no day to be a Marcy. I would like you to call me Katrina. It could get blustery. Katrina is my name today. And so on and so forth.

Really, Annu has always much preferred to be addressed with the rather formal title of Annu of the North, followed by the powerful adjunct proud, fierce, and brave. She uses this whenever the opportunity permits and often when it does not. And so you might have before you Annu of the North: Proud, Fierce, and Brave. This title is mostly accurate.

I can truly say that Annu is very proud, though never boastful, and, certainly, in many of her adventures, she has showed much bravery. But fierce? Well, she has always been very kind and most tender to all creatures (except sometimes the gallootapusses, noocaramusses, mooskaloots, buckodonts, and the striped-back stinkopods), and so I would have to say she is fierce only in her love and loyalty to all who know her. And they are legions. As she often likes to explain, Of course, being fierce does not make one mean. You must be fierce always in protection of love, and love is loyalty. And so I am proud to be fierce, and I am brave to protect my fierceness. So I am ‘Annu of the North—proud, fierce, and brave!’ Would anyone ever guess that I am not? Indeed, few ever have. How could you?

One final point with regard to Annu’s fascination with names needs to be mentioned. In reading the text, it will quickly become apparent that she has also invented her own names for the various animal friends with which she is familiar. A few of those have already been mentioned above. Within the context of the story, it should not be too terribly difficult to determine to which animals she refers, and I felt it in the best interest of conveying the spirit of her tale to leave these names intact. Actually, Annu quite insisted upon it. If you call them by regular people names, no one will know what you’re talking about, she complained. I did not fully follow her reasoning, but there seemed little room to argue the point. A special glossary, entitled Annu’s glossary, is furnished as the only appendix to this volume. It was her own idea, by way of a compromise.

And so let me tell you the story that Annu told me. It is really more stories than just one. As she always says, Every good story is more than just one—they have other stories inside. And so they often do.

This story starts a little after the beginning, goes back to the very beginning, and then travels mostly through the middle, and ends by going back to the beginning, which is of course the end. The path is really much straighter than it might appear at first. Annu further explains this literary structure.

A good story should play out like miniature golf, not real golf. Real golf goes pretty much straight through, start to finish. In miniature golf, you have to really bat the ball around, start over again, get under the windmill, up around the castle, down through the cement water ponds (make sure you have a ball that floats), and finally hook around, and get to the end, which is the hole. It’s simple, and much more interesting!

I need not mention I have never known her to ever play golf of any kind. But as you have already gathered, it is difficult to debate such things with Annu. And after all, she thinks she is correct!

Now once more, back to the story. If you happen to know the points of the compass, I might boldly suggest that you turn your chair in the direction of the north. For it is now to the north country we go. If you have to move too much of your furniture to accomplish this step, you can skip it, but it might help to set the mood.

Originally, Annu suggested the title of this work should be Babushka of the Bush Country and the Battle with the Buckodonts. She said it sounded rather exciting. And indeed it does. However, while a single buckodont does play a role in the story, I had to remind my friend that she never in fact had a battle with these creatures. She has always actually been on rather good terms with them. In good time (about a week), she gave up on this notion, and so you find now before you simply this,

Annu of the North:

Proud, Fierce, and Brave

The Dream Chaser

ANNU’S GLOSSARY

Animaloots—Generic term for all animals

Annerbeast—What Annu is (a.k.a. Labrador retriever)

Buckodont—Beaver

Bumble-stingers—Bumble—and honeybees

Bushtail (red-faced)—Red fox

Butterwings (flying)—Butterfly or large moth

Catawompus—Cat (feline domestic or wild)

Coydogger(s)—Coyote

Dinorhocerus—Large snapping turtle

Finnaspines—Fish (all varieties)

Gallootapuss—Whitetail deer

Galloot (buck)—Male whitetail deer (usually antlered)

Galloot (cow)—Female whitetail deer (doe)

Horkahontoss—Identity unknown (most probably black bear)

Kittyhawkus—Bird of prey (usually any of the owls)

Lutopuss—Rabbit

Lutopuss (long-eared)—The larger hare of the north (i.e., snowshoe hare)

Mammaloot—Generic for all fur-bearing animals

Muskodont—Muskrat

Mooskaloot—Small rodents (generally field mice)

Noocaramus (ring-tailed)—Racoon

Porcupod (stickleback)—Porcupine

Stinkopod (striped-back)—Skunk

Tortopod—Various painted and box turtles

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CHAPTER I

The Farmhouse Setting

Far to the north, almost to the shore of the big lake called Superior and down at the very end of a long dirt road, there was a handsome, old farmhouse. It stood stalwart and fast, nestled against the very fir trees from which it was built, guarding an expanse of broad lawn that rolled out before it like a great canvas, a ground against which the colors of the seasons and the rhythm of the days happily plied and danced and sang. The house never really appeared as large as in fact it was. The vastness of the forest beyond and the deep limitless blue of a clear sky made everything else seemed just so small.

In the spring, the world around the