The death of a Londoner. January 31st 2011.

This is dedicated to the memory of a small Londoner who this morning died in my arms. A wee Lady who came into my life just over fifteen years ago and was more or less a constant companion to me ever since. She survived being born on the streets of Tooting in Southwest London where she was found wandering at the young age of 6-8 weeks old. She came to live with our family a few weeks before Christmas when she was 12 weeks old. An unusual step for the dog and cat home in Battersea, as we had informed by them that they do not like to home puppies and certainly not so close to Christmas. You see we asked for a puppy as we already had a boisterous German Shepherd bitch and did not want to introduce an adult dog into the family as we were not certain that she would accept it. However, fate intervened and there must have been something about the Zig Zag family that was agreeable to the staff at Battersea as we had a phone call telling us that a puppy that had been found by the police , was now available and we had a couple of days to get in and see it.

We took along our German Shepherd to meet this new possible addition to the family. At first I was put off as this ugly looking little dog with it's big paws, but of course my children fell in love with her right away. At least the GSD showed indifference.

We took her home and fretted as to whether or not the GSD would savage her that very night. And the usual argument as to whether or not the dog would be allowed to sleep in with the children. That was a big no and it was decided that she would sleep downstairs. After a period of time of being in the house the, as yet, nameless dog headed for the occupied basket of the GSD. Hearts went into mouths, breath was held and this Agent stood by to intervene in any unpleasantness. We needn't have worried, the GSD sniffed at this interloper and gave way to allow her access into the basket! We could hardly believe our eyes as our somewhat belligerent GSD made room for this wee bundle of hair, head and paws to snuggle into the GSD and promptly fall into a fitful sleep. This small dog was to become known as Sally's dog. (One of my daughters, who had pestered me for weeks to get a puppy as the GSd really is a one person dog).

From that moment afterwards they were then inseparable buddies and never a cross growl passed between them. Of course the GSD passed on before the wee Lady but my other half took her to the veterinary when her time came.

Unwittingly, the wee Lady has been the cause of much mirth amongst our family. When she came to be on her own she had a habit of trotting on ahead 20 or 30 metres, but never very far away. One day whilst enjoying a pleasant walk on a sun filled day, air alive with insects and butterflys, we had walked along the side of a trout filled stream and were now crossing a water meadow. The wee Lady had walked ahead and through a stile to greet some other walkers, the first sign of anyone else we had seen for sometime. She trotted past them and the followed them back through the stile towards us. Meanwhile we had stopped to just look back at the view and as this middle-age couple came towards us , we greeted them as according to our manners and the woman asked us; "Is this your dog?". There was no one else in sight and we stifled our laughter and relied in the affirmative. She then went on to say what a lovely dog she was. This is still an 'in' joke within the Zig Zag household.

We have been blessed to have such a dog in our lives.