My Pets

I have loved many people and places and things in my life. In other parts of this website I have referred to my love of music and books, my love for my garden is also well covered. However, there have also been my pets.

Probably my most persistent love (excluding family of course) has been the love that I have  for the various dogs that I have had over the years. I cannot remember the first dog that I had as I was a young child, but it only stayed for a very short time because it attacked me and I still have a tiny scar to this day. My parents removed the dog from our home and for years after my pets were restricted to less dangerous ones.

Childhood Friends

I remember from my childhood: my cat Sooty, who was such a home body that she never left the garden, and such a gentle cat that she allowed the wild birds to feed close to her; a budgerigar, with the imaginative name of Joey (I wonder how many people have used that name?); a Hamster called Hamlet; a mouse called Pickwick (ironic really as I could almost say that my mouse has become as important to me know!). Somewhere in all of that was a tortoise, which I never really became attached to as I do not think it is possible to love something so independent, and something which spends so much time asleep in a box.

Penny

However, it is the dogs who I remember with love, and in 1971 I had the first of my four West Highland Terriers. For more information about Westies, click on the picture on the right. She was bought on the day that Britain official introduced decimal money. As a result she was named Penny, and she became one of the best travelled dogs I knew, going everywhere with me across the country on public transport. The advantage of having dogs such as Westies is that they are easy to cope with. More than once I took a larger than average bag with me - half for my things and half for Penny to curl up in.

Tammy

As Penny got older it was decided to get another dog so that she would have some company as she spent more time at home (by this time I was at work and travelling less). I fell in love with Tammy as soon as I saw her. The other puppies leaped around their enclosure and demanded attention. Tammy was sat in the corner, the runt of the litter. She had huge, melting eyes that latched onto mine and I was smitten. She was a tiny thing, and never really grew. She had a short, but I hope good life.

Jamie

Tammy's death meant that it was necessary to provide Penny with company again and so Jamie came into the family. She was another tiny dog when we had her, but she soon grew and before Penny's death they were as big as each other. She dominated the family, becoming quite the matriarch. She loved nothing more than to sit in the car watching the world go by. She was the first of my dogs to travel by car, but she took to it as if it was her natural way. Jamie hated walking anywhere, and when an accident caused her to become paralysed in her back legs, she happily allowed herself to be carried everywhere.

Katie

When Penny died, I had decided not to replace her. However, things did not work out as planned. Firstly, a neighbour was taken ill and I looked after her Yorkshire Terrier, Katie. Unfortunately, the neighbour died, but in her will she left me the dog and a sum of money to care for her. Katie had joined the family - but she was a rather independent dog and avoided making friends with either the human members of the family or with Jamie.

Shelley

It became increasingly obvious that Jamie was not suited to being a solitary dog and so Shelley joined the family. From the very start Shelley became the centre of the family and she was loved by one and all, including to everyone's surprise the Yorkie Katie. Shelley was an amazing dog, and when first Katie and then Jamie died she readily took to being the centre of attention. She led a remarkably long life. She was nearly twenty years old when she died, peacefully in my arms. Such an amazing dog was Shelley that I have never wanted to replace her, knowing, in fact, that she was irreplaceable. It has been a few years since her death and I still feel this way.