Very sad today to hear of the death of Kate McGarrigle. I have been a fan of the McGarrigles since the late 80′s when I discovered them while working at Radio Active. Truly great musicians and of course Kate’s wonderful genes also gave us Rufus and Martha Wainwright.
Here’s a clip of Kate, Rufus & Martha all performing together 6 weeks ago in London. I cried most of the way through it for some reason!
RIP Kate.
Our much loved pet dog Ex (aka X) died yesterday peacefully at home of old age. He was 16 years old. We laid him out in a cardboard box and the boys put flowers all around him, and we put some photos of him & us in with him and sang Pokarekare Ana, then took him up to the vets to be cremated. We are planning to scatter his ashes in his favourite park in Darlington where he spent the prime years of his life.
I wanted to write a few words about Ex’s life here to remember him by.
Ex was born to be a working dog on a farm in Hawera, New Zealand in 1992. However as soon as he started walking, it was apparent there was something not right about his gait and he wouldn’t be a good sheepdog. The farmer was planning on throwing Ex in the river but the farmer’s daughter Shannelle convinced him to let her take Ex home to her mother’s house and try and find a home for him. Shannelle’s mother Melina happened to be Jan’s flatmate at the time, and Jan instantly fell in love with the little golden puppy and decided we should adopt him. Jan & I had been together about a year then, and I was living in Rotorua and coming down for weekends.
So Ex became our “firstborn” and we took him off to the vet to diagnose his wobbly gait. The vet told us we should have him put down as he was in pain, but we couldn’t bear it and decided to get a second opinion from Massey University vet school. They told us it was juvenile dysplasia which meant that his bones were growing at different rates, but that he wouldn’t be in pain once he reached adulthood and that with the help of painkillers and minimising his physical activity, he would be fine. So Jan carried him around stuffed down her cleavage for months, and he would drive up with her to see me in Rotorua.
Sure enough he grew into a lovely dog, but he was always a funny shape – tall with shapely long ballet legs at the back, but short and squat chunky terrier at the front, and a giant head! His lineage was never really determined, there was definitely some Staffy in there and other suggestions were Bull Terrier, Mastiff or even Pitbull. He was always a very gentle dog and very friendly.
Continue Reading