There were also family pets. There were cats, and Michael kept a rabbit. There were two dogs at various times, called Sandy and Juno. Juno, an 80 pound white Samoyed Husky, used to snatch plastic milk bags from the neighbour’s front step where they had been delivered. Kathleen would look out the window and see Juno coming home with the milk bags in his mouth. Juno also went over to Spring Park school every day and wait for Joey at recess, lunch and after school. He was the only dog allowed on the grounds of the elementary school, perhaps because the principal gave up calling Kathleen to keep him off the property. The odd time, Juno got into the school and was chased down the halls by teachers. He sat outside the window looking into Joey’s classroom in the basement, and when Joey left class, Juno would pick up the books in his mouth and trot beside Joey all the way home.

Juno was allowed to roam freely throughout the neighbourhood where he scratched at back doors looking for snacks.

Not all of the antics of the various pets in the Murphy household were as cute and adorable. Danny borrowed a pony one time and tethered it to a tree in the backyard. The pony ate the bark off the tree and eventually got

loose, ending up roaming on the street. The pony was gone shortly after that.

Homework was done around the kitchen table. If anyone was stuck, either Kathleen or Bill would be close at hand to help out. They were very involved in their children’s education. Every month they attended Home and School meetings. One

year, Bill was elected president of the Spring Park Home and

, . -, ‘ " School Association where he

Danny and Kevin on “PM? that brought a parent’s perspective was around the housefly a ”my to the school system which was short period offime rapidly changing in the early

112 KATHLEEN MURPHY, MAITRIARC