Our Pets.

I noticed that we haven't got a spot on here dedicated to out pets. What self respecting forum does not have a thread where we can prattle on about our animals. I will start this off with a little memory of my favourite pet Rex. Once again I wrote this for somewhere else and have copied it to here, so some of you may have read it.

This is a picture of Rex the most intelligent dog I ever knew. He was a rescue dog like the majority of our pets, I think we owe these abandoned animals a chance of a good life before we spend hundreds of pounds on pedigree animals. Not that I have anything against them because in amongst the myriad of animals that we have had the pleasure of watching over we have had three pedigree dogs. The one an Airedale Terrier I will tell you about Zak on another occasion.

Getting back to Rex, he was a diamond but his problem was he wouldn’t be caged, because of his predilection for wandering off on his own. I had to go to the very great expense of having a six foot fence put all around my rear garden. I have to tell you that this cost me a few thousand pounds. When it was completed I thought well Rex that’s your wandering days over unless you are with me on a lead.

The next day when returning home from work, Rex of course had gone wandering. As the day after was a Saturday I let Rex out in to the garden and I stood and watched. Rex made one run at the fence got his paws on top of the fence and clawed his way to the top. On reaching the top he sat balanced on top of the fence making sure his escape route was clear he then he leapt down on the other side. That meant another visit to the timber yard for a number of lengths of trellis. When these were fitted on top of the fence, this put paid to his illicit wanderings.

A couple of days later I was at our local garage and the pump attendant (remember them) said to me “you are the owner of Rex aren’t you”. I replied “yes” thinking hello what’s he done. She said “we were all wondering if he was O.K because we haven’t seen him for a while”. So I said “what do you mean”. She explained that every day Rex would call at the pet shop over the road where he would sit outside until the owner came out with a little tit bit for him after eating his tit bit he would accept a little fuss from the shop owner then toddle back the way he had come to the zebra crossing where he would sit and wait until the traffic stopped for him then he would cross the road. He would then make his way into the garage accept a bowl of milk and then lie himself down by the heater until he decided it was time to go home, A feat which he accomplished by the reverse of his actions to get there.

According to the pump attendant he would do this every time he managed to get out. I left promising to bring Rex down to see her. So when taking Rex for a walk I would pass the row of local shops. The trouble was it took so long, as we passed each shopkeeper would come out to talk. Not to me but Rex.

Of all our animals I am not ashamed to admit Rex was my favourite. He was 21 years of age when he left us, and we had him from the rescue home as a young pup. He was the friendliest, fittest, non aggressive dog you would ever meet and he was loved by everybody who met him. Neither am I ashamed to admit as I write this there is a tear in the corner of my eye.

Phil

What an honour to have had Rex as a companion in life Phil.

Worth a tear for all the joy of the life you shared.

Years ago I had a dog called Sandy.He grew up with my children and I never heard him snarl ,snap or bite.He was a Genntleman of the Dog world.

Sadly I had to have him put to sleep as he could not cope with any kind of noise,I came home one day and he had bitten holes in the gas pipe.The place was full of gas.If I had walked in with a ciggie in my hand we would have blown up.It must have happened quite soon before I got in as he was not overcome.

I had to make a hard decision and even now I have guilt feelings about putting him to sleep but I think his nerves or brain was going.He deserved a better end than that but there w as no way in those days someone could have been with him all the time at that time.

Made me feel sad now remembering all this.

For most of his life he was a joy and I feel he deseves his place on the roll of honour of great dogs.

Oh I love dogs! Phil do you remeber my moms dog Beauty she looked just like yours, I have always had a dog and i'm in trouble at the moment nothing unusual there I may add my husband wants to go on holiday to warmer climes but I don't want to leave the dog, I think I shall aftoo (aftoo I think i've just inventred a new word) back down as he deserves a rest, but as soon as I get to B'ham airport I shall be ringing my son to see if you've guessed it to see if the dog is OK.
June

June

I won't say I do remember you dog Beauty but I will say that the name is familiar. I have always liked animals and my house is like a petting zoo. Because my son and daughter are too strict on the grandchildren having pets. They have all got pets boarded out with us. My wife loves it as the grandchildren are always nagging to be brought to our house.

Phil

Phil I know what you mean we are fostering a Chinchilla, have been for a number of years because the grandchildren used to try and poke her with their fingers through the cage, you know what that means Chinchilla will travel, yes every time we go to Devon the dog and chinchilla go to.
June

Many years ago I had an Old English Sheepdog called Bill, His Pedigree name was Dipperty David. The Dipperty bit must have been short for Dippy. The first thing to do when you have a dog is to teach it who is boss. I didn't have to do this in Bills case he already knew that he was.
I took him for obedience lessons which at least made it easy to hold him on a lead. When he was on a lead though he would walk well until he saw something he liked the look of, such as a vehicle, any vehicle.
If I was walking past a bus stop and a bus pulled up, he would just drag me on. If anyone pulled in to the curb in a car he would jump into it regardless of whether I knew them or not. The greengrocers shop that I used to walk past with him, I was dragged into every time because he got a treat in there.
Now I was quite able to handle and look after a dog. But old Bill was around Six stone he wasn't fat but he was a very big dog and when Bill wan'ted to go somewhere he usually went that way. Usually followed by me. SB

When I did my last post on this thread I promised that I would say a few words about Zak our Airedale. The first thing I have to clear up was he didn't belong to us, he was our sons. Our son purchased him as a pup not long after buying his first house of his own.

As our son was on duty most days and his wife worked as a manageress of a restaurant Birmingham City poor Zak was left to his own devices all day. My wife and I remonstrated with our son saying it was not fair he was locked in the house all day.

Our son took this to heart, and he made the biggest kennel you can imagine. It was like a little bungalow, given the size of Zak it needed to be. When completed this was placed in the back garden so Zak got to be in the fresh air during daylight hours each day.

One day one of the neighbourhood kids was taking Zak for a walk (they used to queue up to take turns) when he slipped the lead and ran off. The young lad ran back to the house to tell my son, who then got on the phone to me to ask me to come and help him look for him. Whilst talking to him on the telephone there was a rattling at my letterbox, so I said “hang on, someone is at the door”. Opening the door I found to my astonishment it was Zak. As Zak had never been walked to our house and had only been there twice by car, I am at a loss to explain how he found his way. How he got all the way to our house crossing many main roads and covering a distance of over two miles and had never been shown the way will always dumbfound me.

A few years later my son decided to extend his house, as it was a major restyling that included removing the roof, he and his wife moved back home to us whilst it was done. Of course Zak had to move with them. As he got on well with Trixie and Scamp our two rescue dogs at the time there was no problem with that.

When my sons extension to his house was complete, he returned home. Zak somehow managed to remain with us, I think it was because my wife would not allow him to go back and be on his own all day. So we became a three dog and two cat family, besides the rabbits, birds, guinea pigs and rats.

We enjoyed Zak’s company for a further 5 years , although on of the biggest dogs we ever owned he was just a big softie and Trixie our little cross terrier used to chase him all around the garden. Sadly Zak died at about 11 years of age this was very young for one of our dogs and we were not expecting it We felt his loss greatly and this is one of the reasons I now prefer a mongrel to a pedigree they seem to live longer.

Phil