My name is Snoopy. I would have preferred Reginald or Oscar but I was so tiny and failing to thrive when I was rescued that Snoopy it was.
I was apparently removed forcibly from a Cape Town drunk’s frayed pocket and money was shoved into that same pocket. I was wrapped in a warm scarf on my rescuer’s neck and he saved me, for the moment that is.
I tried hard to die but my rescuer gave me, who still needed to suckle from my mother, to his mother. According to him she is retired and has all the time in the world to raise me!
I almost killed her too. I’m told that she christened me Snoopy, (Snoops on a good day) with tears warming my small head but she and her husband did not expect me to survive until the following morning.
But the vet advised them well and they took shifts through the night to force fortified milk with a tiny eyedropper into my minute mouth.
As the sun rose I rose from the dead too. I looked into her eyes and fell in love.
The pair of them actually needed medical attention by then because of my demands. They lost weight, sleep and friends.
I believe that they emerged better people. They ae bible people and it says there that ‘trials make you stronger.’ They said it often enough so we were all on the same page there.
As I grew up, they had been assured that I would be a small dog, suitable for the elderly, but I kept growing, past small dog status, past medium sized dog status into a full blown LARGE dog.
(own picture)
I’m rather handsome I think and I eat well so my eyes shine and my coat is glossy.
I love my life.
I love my people and do my best to keep them entertained and busy.
When I became a ‘disruption’, their daughter called me, she yelled ‘puppy school’.
I was highly suspicious, so first they had to catch me to put me in the car! Up until then the car meant a steel table and a man with powerful hands who shoved a ’thermometer’ up my ….you know where’ and stuck me with sharp needles.
It was amazing how quickly I could get them hot and sweating and especially the man-owner into using language that coloured the air blue.
It was especially entertaining when he tripped over the coiled hose pipe and was limping so it took longer to catch me. That first time I needed a little piece of biltong to lure me into the backseat of the car. (over the years I’ve shed a kilogram or two of white fur over the dark fabric of the back seat.)
Once in I was in for the ride and realised the horrible vet-man was not at the end of the journey, I grew to love it. I offered to sit on her lap but for once she was very firm and I became a happy backseat driver, telling her loudly in her ear about every dog we passed and when there was a cat I gave her so much information that she yelled at me to ‘shut up for GOODNESS SAKE.’ Goodness didn’t feature much in our lives thank goodness! I might have had to bite him because I couldn’t bear her shouting.
The man-owner was a shouter and could eventually get me to obey, but my she-owner was all sweetness, kisses and the light of my life.
At puppy school it was a riot.
All those puppies to meet and greet….. wow!
I was so grateful for the life I had that my enthusiasm knew no bounds from the moment ‘she’ opened the rear door of the car. I soon got used to the fact that most owners picked up their pups away from my enquiring nose so that I had to jump up onto their clean trousers. They yelled a lot.
Pixabay
It was very trying to be put on the lead and told to walk on the same boring old side and not walk in front of my she-owner who really didn’t mind that I ran in front of her, even when she fell over me a few times.
Of course I had to get out of the gate first…..to protect her of course from anything savage that might be lurking.
How we laughed together simply for the joy of being outside.
One day we got to puppy school and I even allowed her to put on my lead before we got out of the car. I knew we would have what they called ‘free time’ eventually so that particular morning I was going to do the boring stuff properly for a change.
My he-owner had by this time decided to watch TV at home instead of having the pleasure of an outing with us. I simply couldn’t understand it except for the fact that THAT couch was the best thing in that house………(and it was quickly becoming mine!)
As we got out of the car and she rose up to her full height of 4’ 11” I was surprised to see two people in their duffle coats and pulled down hats against the wind hurrying over to us.
They were all blustery and upset and I watched tears creep into my she-owner's eyes. She listened to their sympathetic tones and I saw their negative hand actions and thought, ‘oh dear, some pup has died’. After a while the lady gave my she-owner a hug and the man patted her shoulder and we got back into the car.
Hugely surprised and wanting to encourage her I leant through the seats and slurped my tongue up her cheek. She wiped it with her sleeve and hugged my neck. ‘Aaaah Snoops what am I going to do with you?’ I wagged my tail suggesting a walk.
‘We’ve been expelled from puppy school,’ she announced sniffing loudly. ‘Never mind, as my Granny used to say, “their loss”. We’ll walk in the forest and have the time of our lives.’
And we have, ever since.
I not only ‘own the couch’, I also ‘own the forest, Tokai they call it. It has no rules, except no biting other dogs or people and who on earth would want to do that? I cause chaos by stealing other dog’s rubber toys, but when the shouting gets too much I chase and destroy large pine cones that my she-owner throws for me.
Diving in and out of the stream and ponds is marvelous on hot days.
We walk with such joy and abandon, who needs to be on a lead, except to cross that pesky road. The horses add another dimension and one gave me a kick early on so I give them a wide berth. I used to chase the odd bicycle until a rider gave me a powerful nudge with his foot so I keep to the trees mostly.
So we look out for each other my she-owner and I and have the time of our lives exploring the forest at least once a day and sometimes twice. If I get really sad at home being cooped up in that house and small garden, she sighs with pleasure and says, ‘just a short one before dark’, and off we go.
There is always the couch waiting for me when I get home. Even my he-owner moves up obligingly and the 3 of us settle down nicely for a couple of hours before my bedtime biscuit and I’m left for the night on my couch.
I sigh with gratitude as I close my eyes.
I look forward to the moment when my she-owner will appear at the top of the stairs and say with gladness in her voice,’ slept well my Snoops? Ready for your breakfast my treasure?’
And the glorious day begins………….