A picture of a caribou calf beside me at our cottage in on the Howley Road. I don't know if you do this kind of story but I figured I would pass it on anyway. We were away for 20 years working and could not wait for the opportunity to return home. I grew up going back and forth to Howley from the 1970's and was very fortunate that our family was always an outdoors type of family.
We would go fishing for trout when the season was open and hunting for moose and rabbit etc. My parents finally built a cabin up there in 1976 and have been enjoying it ever since; they are 75 years old and still grow veggies in the summer in a hobby garden, hunt in the fall and lug wood over the ice in the winter. My mom is the fisher person in our family, no one on the lake can keep up with her. She has had both knees replaced but was out on the ice within 4 months. In 1998 we finally got the opportunity to return home. In the spring of that year, lots became available on Kelly Point Road on the 401 leading into Howley. We truly felt we had died and gone to heaven. Since we have been back, we have two families of loons who return every year to nest and teach their young to dive in front of our cottage, moose that bed down there for a night's sleep, and caribou that graze on all my trees, including the $100.00 apple trees.
On one hot July weekend last year, we travelled from Portugal Cove, where we reside now, to Howley for a week of summer vacation. On the way, in our cottage road, we came upon a young caribou calf about three to four weeks old. I thought that maybe it had been struck. When we assessed the animal, we realized that it was dehydrated; we got water and I watered down her coat, gave her a drink and called wildlife. I learned a lot from the wildlife officer, like Momma was just behind the brush, watching, and that once the caribou had my scent, he would follow me. The officer went out in the bog, put her down in the grass and ran to get away because she was sure to follow. I didn't see her anymore during the vacation, but Labour Day weekend she came by for a visit. The pictures are attached. I have to say if ever there were any prayers answered in my life, coming home was one. We have been blessed with seeing nature at its best. We always leave it as we see it. My buddy is gone now, or at least I think so - can't tell her from the rest now that they are all back in the winter time.

Debbie Robertson
Personal Assistant to
Ray Hunter M.H.A.
Windsor-Springdale
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