I was in love with a girl who lived on my road. She had a little cocker spaniel with big sad eyes. I thought it looked sick one day so I stole it and took it to a veterinary truck that parked on Collins Avenue every Friday. It was a government thing and free for the poor people of Donnycarney. I told the vet the dog had distemper and he put it down. Then I made a bracelet from its collar for my girlfriend. Shorttly after she told me her mother wasn’t feeling the best and the only thing that would cure her was some chicken soup. I had a racing pigeon called Deatach to make soup from but didn’t want to kill it in case my girlfriend might dump me for this really nice looking kid that lived up the street. I think her mother died and she broke it off with me. I only got kisses and nothing else so it wasn't such a big deal.

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When I was seventeen I got fired from my job for coming in late and not coming in at all. My workmate had a brother Freddy who owned a pub in Caherdaniel.  Freddy's was in bad repair, needing a new paint job and signs. I moved to Caherdaniel and lived in a caravan on Lambs Head for about two months. Nobody from the town ever asked my name and everybody referred to me as the Dublin Boy. Being a Dub fresh out of the city it was scary to live alone in a caravan by the sea. I walked two miles from Freddy’s pub every night in pitch dark with  a swarm of bats zipping around my head.

There was a farmer who lived on the hill with his wife. She would check on me all the time, bringing me tea, sandwiches, biscuits or soup. I got a terrible fright one morning when the farmer knocked on my door covered from head to toe in what looked like snot. “I’ve been with calf”- he told me and asked if I could lend a hand. It was my first time ever to see a newborn cow and afterwards I would regularly visit the animal before going to Freddy’s. Once while I was looking at the calf she turned, blinking shyly at me with her lovely eyes and long curly eyelashes. My heart melted on the spot: such a beautiful face, smooth velvet fur. I loved the warmth of her moist body as we lay together looking silently into each others eyes. I never tried anything funny but to this day, no matter how hard I try, I can’t get little Betsy out of my mind.

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