[woofa.express]

During the seventies I worked for a Queensland spray company that based me at Miles. The secretary and general dogs body was a delightful woman by the name of Sharon Bridle. I wrote about Sharon in story number 130 and it's worth a read.
I have written about man's best friend, the dog and I'm posting Sharon's reply story on same.

My Dog.
My very first dog when I was a small child was a Dalmation called Spot and I really loved that dog. The day my Mum decided to leave my father and return to Toowoomba from Newcastle we packed up and as we drove away Spot sat in the middle of the road with the saddest look on his face. I reckon he knew he would never see us again. I grieved for years for that beautiful dog.

The first dog in the clip reminded me of a lovely dog called Nip that belonged to a man in the next flat to us in Dalby. At 4 o'clock every afternoon that dog would go out the front gate and wait until he saw Phil come into view around the corner. Anyhow one weekend Phil and Rose had to go to an army reunion in Toowoomba, so it was left to me to babysit Nip. Sometime that night Nip started to cry and wouldn't leave Phil's old boots on the front porch. I could not understand what was wrong with him. The next day we found out Phil had died in Toowoomba that night.

Also the dog in the clip looked just like our first dog after we were married. Lisa was a very small baby when this little pup wandered into the yard. I just had to keep her, we called her Minty. In 1966 we moved into a flat on Drayton Street - the main thoroughfare through Dalby, so lots of traffic. One day Lisa came running in to me saying that Minty had bitten her, but then I heard the old lady next door calling out to me, no she said Minty did not bite her, she had grabbed her arm and pulled her off the road. After we moved to our present address there was a young couple across the road with a little baby boy and Minty would sit by his pram for ages if Judy had him out in the outdoor area. If they got visitors Minty would not let anyone go near his pram until Judy came out to say it was OK. Another Judy lived up the road and her daughter Nerida would come down to play with my kids. One day Judy came to collect Nerida, she was very angry as she had told Nerida not to leave the yard. As she walked her home she smacked her on the bum and on seeing this Minty went into action running up the road and getting in between Judy and Nerida and growling at Judy. Judy always said it was pretty bad when you couldn't reprimand your own child. When she got very old I picked up another stray at the day nursery, he was a black lab. we called Nugget. Each morning when the kids went to school and I to work Minty and Nugget would hot foot it off to spend the day at Bob's Mum's place. By this time Minty was quite blind and Nugget would gently push her off the road and make sure he was on the road side as they walked along.

Our next dog was another Dalmation also called Spot, a gentle gorgeous dog that never did anything amazing but did cause problems in the summer as he was scared stiff of storms, whips, fireworks etc. We had him on medication all summer. The stress caused his old heart to give out in the end.

Next we got a cross between a Border Collie and a German shepherd. Bob called him Dog, because he loved "Footrot Flats". He was gorgeous and really loved one of our cats. One day I could hear him barking and whimpering out the back so went to investigate. He was looking to the sky and jumping up into the air. The dog has gone crazy I thought. The next thing I saw was an eagle swooping on my poor little cat on our spare block of land. I yelled and jumped the fence to pick up the very scared cat.
When I put her down Dog kept licking her and didn't leave her side for ages. Dog was 17 when we were forced to send him to heaven. Bob cried.

Bob said no more dogs ever but I saw a pound dog's photo in the paper and begged to go and get her - Bob was not pleased - but now just loves her to bits and she is his dog. She is called Peppi, the name she had from her previous owner. She also loves our two cats but particularly loves kids. Only trouble is she wants to lick them and some little ones get scared when I take her to the creek parkland for a walk. Bob really missed her when he was in hospital so an OT there got us to take photos that she laminated and put on the wall. He reckons it made him miss her all the more. She is a lovely black & white short haired border collie who greets everyone - even a thief who came into the house one night and stole my wallet. The police reckon I had one good guard dog!

So these are my Dog stories.

Cheers, S