Give A Dog A Bad Name (published in the US as Smoke Across The Highlands)
Nigel Tranter (il. Cliff Schule (cover of US version)
1963, Collins (1964, The Platt & Munck Co.)
A collie dog was
sitting on its haunches two or three yards away from them, head on one side,
red tongue hanging out, brown eyes crinkled in the most friendly and normal
fashion imaginable. It might have been sitting there watching them all
afternoon.
Twin brothers Don and Ian MacDonald are vacationing in the
Scottish Highlands with their parents, staying at a hill farm amidst the
Cairngorm Mountains with their parents.
They’re hiking and looking for birds when they see a strange shape. Stalking it to a cave, they discover a dog, a
Border Collie.
It was a typical
black-and-white sheep collie of the Scottish hill farm, with much more black to
it than white, shaggy and somewhat unkempt looking…
They’re baffled why the sheepdog is alone up in the hills, away
from any farm or flock, and why she seems wary of them. Friendly and companionable, she nevertheless
keeps a specific distance from the brothers. Finally, the boys head home and
the collie vanishes.
The dog appears again a few days later, rescuing the boys
when they’re trapped on a dangerous mountainside by heavy fog. They start to call her Lady, and discover her
history – her former owner was an old man who was lost in a blizzard the
previous winter. When rescuers found his body, Lady (then named Liath) was
lying alongside his body to protect him. Ian, who seems the more sensitive
brother, is deeply upset at this but a good rousing mocking from his physician
father soon puts him right.
Dr. MacDonald further distinguishes himself the next day,
when he’s hiking with the boys and stones Lady.
He has an excuse – if a strange one. The dog, under attack by a giant
eagle, had come so close to the family that he was afraid the aggressive bird
would be drawn to attack them. Still,
Ian is clearly unimpressed by his father’s logic. Someday, Ian will write an angry book about
his father.
The eagle at about two
hundred feet folded its great wings close to its sides and dropped like a bomb.
It did not swoop, just dropped straight down, almost faster than the eye could
follow – although their ears heard the whistle of it. At the very last split
second, its wings snapped open again to apply an air brake that prevented the
creature from smashing itself into the hillside. And in that instant the collie
leaped in a single spring from her crouching position a good couple of yards to
one side – otherwise those great hanging talons would undoubtedly have struck
her.
The eagle is being insanely territorial because its nest is
in the area. Lady can’t move because her own den is in the area. And then
farmers go on the warpath when some powerful predator begins tearing through their
sheep. Lady is the obvious suspect, and the boys go rogue to protect her.
A naturalist-lover’s dog adventure with old-fashioned
parenting and two reluctantly rebellious boys.
Nice.
Other books by
Tranter
Spaniards Isle
Border Riding
Nestor The Monster
Birds of a Feather
The Deer Poachers
Something Very Fishy
About the Author
1909-2000
Nigel Tranter was Scottish (obviously) and an avid
outdoorsman. He wrote a truly alarming number of books. A full list can be seen here.
