Ten years
It is ten
years since our last Dalmatian died. Frodo the Faller was fourteen years old, quite
a good age, considering all the ailments he suffered. He was preceded by Buddy
Liver Spots, Dominie, and Cariadd, all of whom lived long active lives.Barry had
run with them for years through fine weather and foul, but his knees were increasingly painful.
Once his new chrome alloy knee joints were in place, he didn’t want to wear
them out, so running, a life-long pursuit, was replaced by other activities, and
another Dalmatian was out of the question. Thirty years of Dalmatians had been
great fun, but we recognised our new limitations and anyway, Labradors are so
much easier.
The only
Dalmatians we now have are ornaments, and some Disney-type iterations. I think they
were toppers from large tubes of Smarties. I always loved Smarties, and they’re
so useful for number work and simple music theory with young children.
