Absent friends

I have had several starts at writing this post, I found it hard to write and stopped dog blogging altogether. So to restart…

         The friends a dog makes in his early life remains his or her best friends forever. We have are sad to have lost three great friends last summer, all long time mates of Rocco and ours.

Ziggy with Rocco scheming away...

 Ziggy a lurcher was Rocco’s first great chum that he saw on a regular basis, he frequently came to stay during the day when his owner was at work. They loved hanging out with each other in their teenage years, playing bite-yer-face, going on walks together - or rather mad dashes through the undergrowth. They spent much of their formative years together and remained chums ever since. The lurcher way is to use-up all energy out on the walks then crash out in companionable torpor, Ziggy and Rocco were soul mates.

Ziggy Stardust (his full name).

         Phoebe, who has a genius for giving dogs a human voice and articulating what they might be saying or thinking. Ziggy had the voice of a Russian artist.

Oscar, a Spinone an Italian otter hound, who had the head of a Wooki (or maybe Wookis have heads modelled from Spinones), was staying with us when we went to the Evesham Dog Show to acquire Rocco. He strolled around the dog show like a canine Lord Emsworth and was delighted when we collected Rocco. “I say, what a fine little chap, lets take him back and see how he gets on”. Rocco could walk underneath Oscar at that time. Rocco always regarded Oscar as being an uncle and was grateful for Oscar showing him the ropes in South West London.

Oscar

They used to stay with each other but Oscar lived with cats in his household, so invitations for Rocco to stay rather dried-up. They remained mates and their relationship would instantly rekindle after separations no matter how long.

Bella, a Shar Pei came from the same litter as her life long companion Luca. The inseparable brother and sister were two halves of one soul, Bella the quieter thoughtful affectionate one, Luca full of bravado and protective of his sister. Phoebe when giving them a voice always had Luca speaking for a silent sister (“Bella says thank you for the grub. She is so lovely and polite and all that”.) Sadly cancer has split them up. Luca as a solo dog suddenly is more reliant on human company.

Luca (left) and Bella, mirroring each other.

Shar Peis are great guard dogs and the pair when staying would sleep outside our bedroom and took guarding seriously and took a dim view of anybody wanting to come or go, “Woss the password then? Sorry you got no authorisation, your not on Mr Rocco’s list, sorry and all that. Now buzz off.”