All about Puppy ...

Whilst walking Maggie in a wet, misty park one lunchtime she began to play with a scruffy, skinny, very bedraggled little dog. This was unusual for Maggie who did not play very often. When the time came to return to work, Susan asked the men who were fishing around the lake to hold onto their dog as they were the only people around. “Not ours” they said, “been left by some kids who went home ages ago”. There was nothing else to do but take her back to work and then try to find the owner.

No collar or ID, Susan rang the Police, RSPCA, rescue groups but to no avail, no-one was missing a dog. She became named ‘Puppy’ as a temporary measure and Susan was persuaded to take her home whilst her owners were traced. Over the weekend dogs with a similar description to Puppy began appearing in the local paper, it became obvious that this litter of puppies had been dumped around the town.

Susan didn’t anticipate having a second dog but Puppy had other ideas, settling into the home and work routine well, being a sister to Maggie and cousin to Dexter. Maggie taught Puppy everything she needed to know, so having another dog was not a problem. She became a real character and would always be the one to get into trouble particularly for chasing things she shouldn’t this included boys on skateboards, tractors and Home Helps on bicycles.

Maggie and Puppy’s cousin Dexter died in ………….and so they had total responsibility for the family for a year until Robby arrived when they had to start again, training another dog their role and responsibilities in the family structure.

Maggie and Puppy were very close but when Maggie died Puppy seemed to know that it was going to happen and soon came to terms with the idea of being ‘in charge’. Although much smaller than Robby, she was essential in providing ‘back-up’ when Robby got out of depth with other dogs or wildlife.

After years of good health, Puppy started to develop a lump on her side, which filled with water. This was removed leaving Puppy with a scar from her front leg to her back leg. The hair grew back to cover the scar but unfortunately so did the watery lump so it had to be removed again, this time with the scar going around her body, she looked like a hot cross bun! To disguise it Susan bought Puppy a baseball sweater, which she looked great in and everyone admired it.

As the lump grew back a third time it became impossible to have another operation and so Grandma made her a girdle to protect it.

Puppy helped to develop The Dog Shop. She was the inspiration for some of the products and the publicity.

Puppy died at Easter 2005.