Sunday 1 March 2009

Chapter 1 - The Beginning


A true story by a canine resident of Skeffling

Do you remember that very famous person, who was born on the 25th December, in a stable?   Well, that wasn’t me, but, I was born in a stable.   The date was 13th June 2006, and as well as giving birth to me, my mum also gave birth to 4 boy puppies and another girl.   In all there were 6 of us in the litter.

I don’t remember much of the first 2 or 3 weeks until my eyes began to open properly.   That was when I became aware of my surroundings.   I also noticed that I was a different colour to the others, even my mother!   Mother, brothers and sister were all black and white.   I am BROWN AND WHITE.   What was wrong with me?   Why was I different?

Sure I was the same in every other way, it did not seem to matter much.   However, it was not long before the others began to pick on me, call me names, and generally bully me around.   I became quite nervous, and would stay close to my mum, but even she soon became tired of me hanging round her and would snarl at me to go away.

I was not just bullied by my birth family, but also by the big animals (called people) that came every day and put food down for us.   The smaller ones, which I found out were the farmer’s children, were especially nasty.   They were only happy when they were picking me up by the scruff of my neck or smacking my face.

The stable itself was OK, big and warm, with plenty of straw.   I would play by myself in the shadows, trying not to be noticed.


One very sunny day, the barn door creaked open, and there stood the farmer with a tall, black haired lady.   He and the lady were looking at us, and she was speaking softly with her hand out to us.   She wanted to touch us and my siblings quickly ran forwards, climbing over each other, eager for her to touch and stroke them.

At this point, I was curious, but cowered at the back, afraid.   I was the runt of the family, and knew that no-one wanted me.   With that the farmer stepped into the stable and picked up both my sister and myself and held us both out to the lady.   She smiled and stroked us, then said she would go and get some money and come back for one of us.   She did not know which one she wanted, but definitely wanted a little girl puppy.

I could not get this lovely lady out of my mind.   I played rough and tumble for a while with the others and completely ignored their name calling and nasty nips.   Then I fell asleep for my daily nap alone, while the others were cuddled together, dreaming of that soft kind voice.   I awoke some time later to the creak of the stable door.   Wow!   The lady was back and looking at us again!

I so, so wanted to be touched by her, but slunk into the dark background.   I could hear her talking to the farmer, saying that although she wanted a little girl puppy she just could not make up her mind between me and my black and white sister.   She then turned her back and asked the farmer to choose one of us for her.   To my utter astonishment, he came straight for me, picked me up and said, “here, have this one, look she has nice markings.”

The lady put out her arms and held me close, very gently with her head next to mine. She gave the farmer money and together, we left the farm.   I was so excited, I barely noticed the huge awful smelling car we travelled in.   I had never been in a car before, everything was new to me.   The lady uttered kind sounds and gently stroked me as we travelled the country lane and a nice peaceful feeling came over me.