MAJOR CHARACTERS IN THE SERIES

Dr Dave

Dave is tall and moderately lean, with dark brown hair and a few moles on his face. He wears his hair almost shoulder length, and is usually dressed in jeans and a short sleeved dress shirt. Full of self doubt, but very capable and practical for the most part. Has a low temperance for incompetence and a bit too judgemental of others, but often more critical of  himself.

Cory Sims

Cory is 25 years old and wears his hair fairly closely cropped. He’s dressed in jeans and T shirt, and fits his clothing well. He’s five foot eleven and weighs about a hundred and seventy pounds. He has played a lot of football in his younger years but doesn’t look any worse for the wear. He’s a handsome guy, but just a bit too nerdy to be big with the women. He has struggled academically through the four years of college, but never been in danger of flunking out. He has leaned on Dave for help getting through a few of the subjects.

Dave’s Mother Pearl

Pearl is a lean woman in her early sixties. Her hair is greying but still has a hint of brown…she wears it shoulder length and often has a comb on either side to keep it up. She is a bit of a nervous woman who is constantly looking to do things to benefit her family. She worked as a house keeper for other women to bring in money to put her daughter through school and continued doing the same with Dave until he sent the money back to her and suggested she quit. She dotes over both Dave and Marsh, and Dave gets obviously distressed by it if around her too long.

Dave’s Father Marshall

Marshall is just over six feet tall and has a heavy build. He has hair down both sides of his head, but is bald over the top. He gets on fine with Dave, but there is always a feeling of tension between them. Dave always had the feeling that he was not man enough to live up to his father’s expectations. Marsh isn’t very talkative, but is obviously impressed that his son is making something of himself. He was always afraid of taking chances, and every time he stepped out of his comfort zone to try and do something on his own he ended up failing. He works at Cominco as a repairman, and is looking forward to his retirement. He hates the company he works for and feels as if he has been abused by it over the years. He has an edge to him that keeps people on the defensive, and no one who knows him would knowingly cross swords with him.

Keith Marling

Keith, the long time "only" vet in Creston, is a middle-aged man in his fifties. He has dark hair with a shock of white right at the front of his forehead. He’s rather dumpy in appearance, but dresses fairly well in dress pants, often with a tie and a short sleeved shirt.

Ann, Keith’s wife

Ann is a blonde, big boned woman, with shoulder length hair, who is five foot ten and in her early forties. She has been Keith’s receptionist for years and probably does as much of the veterinary work in the office as Keith does. She is assertive and does most of the dealing with the clients.

Bill Borden

Bill is a quiet, almost sulky man who always looks like he has a chip on his shoulder. He’s in his early sixties and looks as if he has been used hard over the years. He was one of the founding members of AA in Creston and still attends regularly. He does his job on the ferry with efficiency, but is not one to go out of his way to do any favours. He is an absolute packrat, and his property is full of falling down old buildings that are crammed with everything imaginable. Bill probably knows where he stored his first pair of undershorts.

Bea McKay

Bea is a big-boned woman in her mid fifties with twenty extra pounds. Her kids are grown, and gone, and she lives alone with her husband Fred. She’s a farm girl with a farm girl attitude. When she gets her hair done, it’s with a perm she bought at the local drug store and got her neighbour to put up in curlers. She’s a great cook and a devoted housewife. She would not likely plan anything without her husband, and would rarely leave the farm without him. Her entire life revolves around her kitchen and the extensions of it with the chickens, the cows, and the horses.

Fred McKay

Fred is a lean man, about six foot one, with thinning brownish hair. He dresses in jeans or bib overalls and is rarely seen without his cowboy hat. He’s a hardworking guy who has never made millions but has always kept things tied together on the farm. He and Bea are totally self sufficient and are likely not to head to town more than once or twice a week. Fred hays the rolling hills around his farm and keeps cattle, horses, and chickens. He is a man of few words, but someone you wouldn’t want to get riled.

Gordon Veitch

Gordon is in his middle forties. He’s big in both presence and size. He weighs in at close to the three hundred pound mark and is not ashamed of being overweight. He loves to eat, and is especially enamoured with pastries. He has had a rocky past of business failures, but continues to plough on. Although he is the realtor in the office, the job bores him silly, and he spends more time trying to dream up uses for almost every piece of property in the town whether it’s for sale or not.  Once he acquires something new and gets it functioning, he soon gets bored with it and turns the responsibility of running it to his wife, Ruth.

Ruth Veitch

Ruth is a similar age to her husband. She is a heavy weight herself. Much shorter than Gordon, she is over two hundred pounds. Her hair is blonde and fairly short…she is well dressed, but doesn’t spend a lot of time in front of the mirror. She’s all the things that Gordon isn’t…dependable, diligent, and efficient. Without her to consolidate Gordon’s efforts, he would definitely go down in flames. She is motherly towards Dave, and is not above straightening him out the way she does Gordon. She’s a great cook and likes to eat. There is never a deficiency of cookies, cakes, and pies around the Veitch Realty Office.

Doris Currie

Middle-aged woman in her early fifties…a few extra pounds; matronly with rather puffy cheeks. Wears heavy rimmed glasses and always, always has to have her hair done up. Nothing is more important than her regular appointments with her gay hairdressers. Doris dresses up more than one would expect for a person working in a vet clinic, would not tolerate a run in her stocking and has never even owned a pair of jeans. 

Brian Gallagher

Brian is a slight blonde boy, fourteen years of age. He wears his hair shoulder length and is dressed in well worn jeans, ragged tee-shirts, and holey sneakers, because they are probably the only things he has to wear. He is sharp witted with a quick retort to almost any comment and definitely stands out from the crowd as someone special. He has the personality of a star, but is more likely to take the easiest way out of a difficult situation. He is far more likely to spend as much time as possible coasting rather than expending a lot of effort to accomplish the task at hand.

John Gallagher

John is taller than his brother, and very lean - a bit of a bean pole. His hair is darker than his brother, and in fact, they bear little resemblance to one another. He is nowhere near as outgoing as his brother Brian and is more likely to “hang back” a bit. He’s definitely the big brother and is very protective to Brian. He is also the motivated one when it comes to trying to get ahead, working as many part time jobs as he is capable of looking after. He was the one that, when things were tough and food was scarce, planned the dumpster routes and kept grub on the table. John is "Mr. Determination"!

Shirley Shopa

Tall, slender, blonde woman in her late thirties, early forties. Dresses neatly and fills out a pair of jeans very nicely. Although she’s very capable, she’s far more easily rattled than Doris, and is constantly looking to her fellow receptionist for backup. Family is more important to her than the job, and her thoughts are never far away from her husband, Alex or her two children.

Margaret Rogers

Margaret is a feisty old girl in her seventies. She wears a hearing aid that she frequently turns down to drown out the constant noise in the background, then she'll get annoyed at people because they won't "speak up". She is Dave’s Gimini Cricket when it comes to finances, and she is constantly harping at Dave to watch his spending. She gets along well with all the other “girls” in the office and is the one that they always sic on Dave when they want change in the office.

Margaret Berg

Marg is a farm girl through and through. Her first job was to cook for a threshing crew and after that to do house work for a local neighbour. She’s a hefty woman who can throw bales with most of the men. She milks her cow every morning and gets a bit nervous if she has to stay late, because she still has all the chores to do yet at home. She can’t understand Doris' fetish with her hair, and for her running a comb through a couple times a day is all that is needed. She dresses in jeans, but is not above showing up at work in a skirt and blouse. She is a widow and often has several different men that she is seeing at the same time.

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS IN THE SERIES

Margaret Hayden

Margaret is an assertive girl who is not about to take shit from any man. She’s twenty five years of age and built like a woman who has done her share of physical labour over the years. She wears her blonde hair shoulder length, and although it’s neat, it’s obvious that she doesn’t spend time primping. She can produce a muscle when she flexes her arm that would put many men to shame.

Doyl Mullaney

Doyl is a talkative, lean, carefree guy  in his early thirties who dresses like he’s at the stampede grounds. He wears long sleeved cowboy shirts and is reluctant to even remove his cowboy hat in classes. He talks with a drawl even though he is a native of Alberta. He is flippant about most things in life and loves to partake of his liquor. One never sees him at a function without a beer in his hand.

Doyl’s wife Terry

Tall, lean woman with shoulder length brown hair. Although she looks like she would be at ease with the cowboy life, she dresses mostly in jeans and a regular blouse. She has worked hard at menial jobs to put her husband through university and her clothes are a bit worse for the wear. Even though she is in her early thirties, she looks a bit haggard and out of place with a university crowd.

Dr. Peter Morganthaler

Peter is a slight man in his late forties. His hair is thinning and is leaning towards the grey rather than his original brown colour. He is rather a meek man and is very soft spoken.  He moves slowly and says very little unless there is something of import. He is well respected as a veterinarian, and offers the cheapest service in the area, thinking that all he needs to do is make a decent living.

His wife Cathie Morganthaler 

Cathie is a slight woman in her middle twenties. She is as talkative and outgoing as Peter is shy and retiring. Her hair is blonde and she wears it shoulder length…almost bobbed and one would wonder at times if she cut it herself. She appears rather impetuous at times, but is good at managing Peter and keeping the office moving.

Jean Melba

Jean is a tall,  lean woman in her twenties who dresses in men’s hiking boots, wool plaid shirts, and blue jeans. Her hair is brown, and she wears it shoulder length. She is relatively attractive, but always has the faint smell of garlic, goats and herbal musk oil about her. She is a capable woman with a sharp tongue.

Deb Anson

Deb is a tall woman, well over six feet and is solidly built. Her hair is brown, well groomed and medium length. She’s very out going and not the least bit reserved. She has the look of a woman on the prowl. She always seems to have a group of young boys around her when at home. She is not unattractive, she seems very conscious of her height and is determined to find a man that is suitable.

Dick Douma

Dick is a dairyman in his early thirties. He’s around the six foot mark, is relatively lean and still has a full head of hair. He and his wife Marie run a dairy and have a small butcher shop where they sell and process their own animals. He has a lot on the go and is milking in a stanchion barn that is far more labour intensive. He has some of the top milking cows in the province and works hard to get top production from his cows.

Carol the waitress

Tall, lean woman, in her early sixties. Her long hair is tied in a bit of a ponytail. It’s dyed blonde but is very gray at the roots. She smiles readily to expose crocked teeth that look like they could use some work.

Mr Hall, the bank manager

Mr Hall has been a venerable old banker in the town for years. He’s a small white haired individual with “little man syndrome”. The little hair he has grows on the fringe of a very shiny top. He wears horned rimmed glasses and uses them as a pointer as he does lots of gesticulations with his hands. He is brusque and rude in the extreme.

Werner Beier

Werner is a young man in his twenties in charge of a big poultry operation. He is around five foot nine and has a very lean build. He’s a hard working young man and very much in charge of his situation. He is obviously a real animal lover and is torn between helping his pet and worrying about the cost of doing so.

Bob Barns

Bob is a jovial, heavy set balding man in his middle to late sixties. He has run Creston |Hardware for most of his adult life and continues to work alongside his two sons.  He’s very knowledgeable about his product and goes out of his way to make a sale.

Jean Partington

Jean is a lean woman, about five foot eight with short crop dark hair. She is very assertive and opinionated and is not above telling Dave that she doesn’t agree with him. She, along with her husband, John run a sixty cow dairy.  Although John does most of the heavy work, Jean looks after the calves and works with Dave on the herd health to try and maintain good pregnancy rates for the cows.

Mrs. Lennard

Mrs. Lennard is a pleasant if somewhat “slow” woman in her forties. She is of slight build and with frizzy brown hair that is greying. She is sloppily dressed in fortrel pants and a very grubby blouse. She is seems poorly educated and rattles on with poor grammar. She obviously cares for her animal, but sure doesn’t appear to have the means to look after it.

Mr. Lennard

Mr Lennard is a portly grey haired man who appears to be in his early sixties. He looks like he has been |"ridden hard and put away wet", and may well have been hung over. He’s sloppily dressed and his right arm is suspended in a grubby sling made from an old bed sheet. 

Jerry

Jerry is a big strapping heavy set guy who is probably a logger. He has a big tank and a bunch of paraphernalia in the back of his big blue 4x4. He’s well over six feet with dark hair and a predominant beer gut that extends over his belt. He is obviously very good with his hands and used to using equipment and machinery. He has obviously used a chain block before.

 Steve

 Steve is a lean man about six foot two in height. He is in his early forties, and although his hair is greying slightly, it still is flaming red. He’s the owner of the Yahk General Store and is brusque and abrasive in dealing with everyone. He hate spending money on anything that he could manage to do himself, and both his store and his house are showing the signs of decay.

Mabel Stern

Mable is a good looking brunette who really doesn’t fit the typical image of a farm girl. She is more the type of person you would expect to be glued to the arm or a rodeo star or swinging around the dance floor in her cowboy hat. Her husband, Jim, just doesn’t fit the bill. Mabel is frustrated with her life as a mother and a farm hand and wants to swing. She need excitement in her life, and thinks she has a way to get a bit of it.

Jim Stern

Jim is a farmer and a truck driver. He’s tall, lean, and rugged looking. He dresses like a cowboy with long sleeve shirts even in the summer. He does his chores in cowboy boots and shaves once a week whether he needs to or not. He’s not overly anxious to waste money on vet bills when it is not absolutely necessary and is truly offended when Mabel tells Dave that his milk cow doesn’t like him. For him that was a major insult.

Vern Petersen

Vern is a feed lot operator. He’s a husky, balding man in his forties. He is pretty observant of his animals, but whenever he gets into trouble, “woe is he”. He loves to bask in his own misery and seems to attract it with one thing after the other. He ends up with large numbers of animals being affected with pink eye.