That was summer for me. The smell of dust and manure(肥料) , hot on a summer breeze, pushed fast through the windows as we drove down winding roads. Even now, and I know how awful it sounds, the smell of manure makes me think of my dad. For years I have enjoyed that smell, and inhaled it deeply, surreptitiously, whenever I encountered it. It transports me back to those summer days: days with my dad.

　　This was how I, and both my brothers, got to know our father - against the backdrop of the farms around Elmira in Southwestern Ontario that he served as a large animal veterinarian for more than 40 years. He travelled across the region from farm to farm every day, helping and healing, collecting friends and experiences from every person he met.

　　But Dad could make magic happen. When I was about 6, he took me out on a calving（产犊） call. It was a snowy night. We parked the car at the side of the road, but the barn（牛棚） was nowhere to be seen. Standing there, in blissful confusion, I was unconcerned because my father was there with me and I knew nothing bad would happen. Out of the darkness a jingling sound emerged, getting louder and seeming to come from every direction. I was young enough to hope that it could be Santa with his reindeer sleigh (for Christmas was on the horizon), and I waited hopefully. A light bobbed along（上下疾动） across the field, and I watched with open-mouthed wonder as a horse-drawn sleigh drew up beside us. "The drive is too full of snow," my dad explained, "so they came to pick us up in the sleigh."

　　To be honest, I don't know whether that was true or not. To be honest, I don't really care if it was. The truth of that night was a horse-drawn sleigh ride through the snowy dark of night, huddled up under a rough woolen blanket that smelled of horses, and cuddling my dad's arm. I don't remember much else of that night, but that journey stayed with me for a lifetime.

　　In time, my dad let me be magic. While he treated the animals and chatted with the clients, who had become his friends, I was allowed the run of the barn. And run I did: chasing semi-feral(半野生的) barn cats everywhere, trying to catch just one so that I could pet it and hear it purr（咕噜咕噜声）. I would return to where my dad was working, carrying my feline trophy(战利品) with pride. Inevitably, the farmer would glance over, do a double-take (先是一怔后来才恍然大悟) and say: "That cat's near on wild. No one has been able to pet that one in forever." I would beam and snuggle（依偎）it a little tighter, then let it go.

Even after I became an adult, my dad was magic. He and my mother were very progressive in