A Life
Full of Animals - part one
I have never known a time in my life without animals, apart from the three years I was at college.
My earliest memory is of Bob the Collie, for whom my father laid a place at the table. There followed Sombre the Smooth-coated Collie, Ginger the cat, Punch the Springer and Judy the kitten.
As she aged and our children grew, we decided to get another
dog, to ease the pain of Whisky’s passing, when the time came. Thus we acquired
Biddy, a 7-month-old smooth-coated Jack Russell terrier, (JR) the long-legged
variety now known as Parson Jack Russell. She had already been cubbing and
never lost her penchant for searching underground, once disappearing for
several hours and emerging mostly brown, rather than her usual tan and white.
She was enormous fun, always seeking to ingratiate herself by sliding round on
one shoulder in front of one of us and submitting. She was very much Barry’s
dog, loving to huddle inside his jacket. When he wasn’t around, Biddy’s preferred
companion was Gareth, particularly in the forest. She was expert at climbing
trees.
After Whisky died, Biddy was lonely, missing her old companion and so we got Leo, a rough-coated, short-legged Jack Russell. He had been a stud dog and in our innocence we thought we would have no problem keeping him and Biddy apart when she came into season. How wrong we were! Biddy had five adorable puppies, and we kept Daisy and Sam. Daisy was a very pretty broken-coated girl and liked sleeping in the cat beds we suspended from the radiators, for by now, we had a cat, a beautiful brown Burmese.
Susannah, Gillian and Gareth with Biddy and her five puppies
Sam was also broken-coated and immensely strong for his size.
He loved collecting logs, the bigger the better. He really was a big dog in a
little dog’s body. He and Leo did not get on once he grew up, so Leo went to live
with my parents. Sam’s life was short and sweet. Out running with Barry one
day, he ran off and was knocked down by a car. He died unexpectedly after surviving
a few days with the vet. He was six years old. Biddy had spent much time
licking his ears and little Daisy was somewhat overlooked. Clearly, Sam was his
mother’s favourite and she pined for him. We commenced our search for our next dog.
I had long wanted a Dalmatian and soon Cariadd joined our family from Wales. She was smaller than the JRs when she first arrived, but soon outstripped them and proved to be a good problem-solver.
Cariadd. Bethan, Biddy and Daisy
She specialised in carrying long branches, more like young trees, through small gaps and was the perfect running mate for Barry. She also had a terrific smile, which worried people who were not familiar with dog smiles. We were sometimes told, ‘Your dog’s snarling at me.’
Many breeds of dog smile, or snark, some with closed lips, others with varying degrees of tooth display and nose wrinkling. I must admit it can look quite alarming!
I believe that once you have two or more dogs you can never go
back to just one. Dogs need dogs and the one that’s left alone becomes
depressed. A ‘new’ dog, whether baby puppy or older dog, rejuvenates the
survivor and rekindles his or her energy and enthusiasm.
When our last JR, Daisy, died, we had to find a companion for
Cariadd, and this came in the form of Dalmatian Dominie, from Devon, four
months old and a really big puppy. She was as soft as butter, a little dog in a
big dog’s disguise. Cariadd, not noted for her maternal instinct, allowed the
youngster to chew her neck and never grumbled at her. Dominie was not well
coordinated as a puppy and fell in our pond every day for a week as she
thundered over the bridge, but she grew into an athletic dog who could turn on a
sixpence, giving any chasing dog a great work out.
We were very taken with our Dalmatians, delighting in their elegance and intelligence, and it was good to have not one, but two big dogs to which we could reach down a hand to be nuzzled. As Cariadd aged, and, sadly, dogs age too quickly, we decided to look for a third Dalmatian. Bethan had enjoyed building obstacle courses for Cariadd and was keen to try showing a dog. Dominie, beautiful though she was, was simply too big and Cariadd had never been keen on the show ring.
We thought it would be fun to have a liver Dalmatian, so
green-eyed Buddy left his home in Cornwall to live with us. His eyes didn’t
remain green. He was a handsome boy, devoted to Bethan. When we brought him
home, Dominie’s expression was one of pure joy. We could almost hear her
saying, ‘My puppy, oh, my puppy.’
Labradors are renowned for being greedy, but Dalmatians can
match, if not outpace them. Ours all learnt very quickly that food was freely
available on work tops and we had to find places they could not reach. Naturally,
they didn’t attempt to thieve while we watched. We were careful about not
allowing them ‘dangerous’ foods, like grapes or macadamia nuts, but even so Buddy
demolished a chocolate cake and lived to tell the tale. Our grandchildren still
laugh about that.
In the meantime, the cats were ruling the roost, and attempting to find a way into the fish tank for a tasty fresh snack. When they had a spat, as cats do, they would find a dog to curl up with. The cats never attacked the dogs, just each other. Sometimes, a dog would stand between two arguing cats, to calm them down.
Cariadd and 6 Burmese
After Buddy came seven-month–old Frodo, from Lincolnshire, a dog bred primarily for looks rather than temperament. He was always gentle and loving with everyone in our household, particularly Buddy, but reactive with unfamiliar dogs, not a good trait in a show dog. He became my Velcro dog and remained so until his death seven years ago.
Wow! What a life! I'm pretty sure that a measure of how well one lives is how many animals you've allowed into it all. If that's the case, yours is one of the best. Thanks for dropping by the Farm, and I hope your new year is terrific!
ReplyDeleteWow. You've had a lot of pets, especially dogs. We've only had two dogs and three cats, all long gone now and the freedom we gained when they died was good but I wouldn't change having them. Both dogs we saw from pups to old age.
ReplyDeleteOh my, that is a LOT of pets! (and more children than I could have handled, too :)) When I was growing up we only ever had one cat and one dog at the same time, plus a budgie at one point. You must be a fairly laid-back person to take a menagerie that size in stride :)
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to add how much I loved the photo of the movie star dog (scarf and sunglasses) and the pup in the slouch hat. All the photos were wonderful, actually :)
ReplyDeleteAs a child about five or six, my family had one dog, one cat and one bird. I don't remember what happened to the bird, but the dog went with my brother when Mum left home and took my siblings. When we moved house the cat disappeared and was later seen by old neighbours still hanging around but could never be caught. After that we had no more family pets until my own children were old enough to help care for them and we only ever had one pet at a time. Right now I have just my cat Lola, who will be fourteen this year and likely to live quite some time still as she is in good health, but once she is gone I will have no more.
ReplyDeleteI loved reading about your fur family. My daughter has never been without multiple cats and dogs. She would adopt them all of she could. Right now we have a chubby cat who can say MAMA when he stands by his dish asking to be fed.
ReplyDeleteGood heavens, that really is a LOT of animals! The problem I have with animals is that their lives are so short. I would be a wreck if I had so many, and thus lost so many. You must be made of stronger stuff. Pam from In This Life (can't comment other than anonymously, bother Blogger).
ReplyDeleteA lifetime of sweet dogs and wonderful photos with your family, a lovely post. As far back as I can remember we had dogs. I have this memory of Skipper, our first Skipper, when I was a child in my mother's arms. Dad introducing me as he held him in his own arms. We were in the garden at the time. Thanks for sharing these wonderful memories that brought back my own.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your kind comments. Pets bring a lot of joy and, at the end, sadness, but we feel it's a tribute to those who have gone before to take on another. They are never forgotten, never replaced, just added to the catalogue of much-loved family members.
ReplyDelete