Free range spaniels!

I nearly just acquired a second dog!

My route home from work goes along a lane through a gorgeous tiny village - it's literally just a few houses, a green, a farm and a church. The lane is quiet but a few people use it as a cut-through around rush hour time.

As I was going through there this evening, I saw a little blue roan cocker trotting along the verge all by itself - not a human in sight. Couldn't just leave it, so pulled over, stuck my hazards on and called it over to me.

Well, it was just gorgeous. She (as I discovered she was) was so friendly and happy to see a nice human, she came scampering up for a fuss and was happy to be handled and stroked. However she had no collar on - which posed a problem. As a friend whose dog nearly lost its nose will confirm, Henry is great with other dogs BUT he doesn't really like sharing car space, and as the boot of my car is rammed with junk and the back seat is currently housing a wooden pallet on which I shall be storing firewood, space for a second dog is limited. So I opened the passenger door of the car, and while Henry and the wee stray were having a snog (But I luuuurved her - Henry) I furtled Henry's slip lead over her head. Then I shut Hen back in the car (How could you do it to me? - Henry) and took our new friend off to knock on doors, in the hope that someone would recognise her.

Well, we traipsed from house to house to house - no one was in, everyone was at work. At this point I was starting to worry - how on earth was I going to get her and Henry to my vet safely to scan for a microchip - and what if she didn't have one?

Fortunately, the fifth or sixth house we went to had got an occupant who recognised the little miscreant - who was called Cloud. Not only that but as we arrived there we heard someone calling for her. Her owner had been checking the fuses as the area had had a powercut, and while she was doing that madam spaniel had taken herself for a walk. In fact, her house was the very first one we had tried - the lady just hadn't heard my knocking.

So madam Cloud has gone home, and young Henry is sulking that I have deprived him of a potential new buddy. But I can't deny, I was half tempted to bring her home....

Good deed for the day - done!

Just goes to show though - microchip your dogs, people! If I had been unable to find Cloud's owners there and then, my only hope would have been to take her to the vets to have her scanned. It only costs a few quid, it doesn't hurt the dog, and it could be the difference between getting your best friend back or never seeing them again. In the words of the ad man - Just Do It.




A gratuitous picture of Henry on his holidays last week. Because it has to be done.

How did I end up here?

Which is, in Norfolk, trying to train a mad and wicked spaniel named Henry to be a real grown-up gundog?

Well, it started the day just before Christmas 2008, when I went to the Dogs Trust in Snetterton. After losing our old family dog Barney the Lab that autumn I had missed having a dog to at least visit at weekends dreadfully, and had finally plucked up the courage to ask my landlords for permission to keep a dog of my own. As recommended by all right thinking people, I had carefully researched breeds, and had come to the conclusion that a greyhound, or maybe a lurcher, would fit into my life beautifully. I was all fired up to see what skinny dogs they had to offer me.

After filling in the forms designed to make sure I at least had some clue what I was letting myself in for, I was allowed into the kennels to look at the dogs ready for rehoming. I'll tell you now - be prepared for an emotional trip if you do this. Even though the Dogs Trust kennels are bright, clean and cheerful it is still hugely sad to see so many dogs that have ended up homeless for one reason or another - and very, very tempting to try and take all of them home.

In the interests of being sensible I carefully selected a couple of sighthounds to ask about, and headed back to the desk. When I got there however, it became quickly apparent that neither of these dogs would suit - I needed a dog which would come to work with me and share an office with a terrier, which these dogs, with their drive to chase small furry creatures, could not do. I must have looked completely crestfallen, or perhaps not anything like a potential sighthound owner, because the lovely lady offered to come and look through the kennels with me to see if another dog might do.

Which is how ten minutes later I first met Henry, then known as Sammy. I had seen him in his kennel and thought he looked a lovely, happy (and tubby!) dog but had discounted him as he was wearing a buster collar - I didn't want to lose another dog so soon after Barney. It turned out that there was nothing wrong with him other than having just been neutered (What do you mean 'nothing'?! Didn't feel like nothing to me - Henry), so after chatting about him and whether he would suit the life I led, he and I headed off down the road to get acquainted. Two things became instantly obvious - that he had no idea of how to walk on a lead politely, and that he loved to be out and about! After we got back I sat outside the centre with him, waiting for someone to come and take him back to his kennel, stroking his head, promising him that a home with me would be a home for good and fighting the temptation to stick him in my car there and then and speed off in a squeal of burning tyres and a plume of smoke (Well that's how you normally drive - Henry).

Of course it wasn't quite that simple - although Sammy was now reserved for me I had to go back and meet him several more times, obtain permission from my landlords in writing as opposed to the verbal ok I had, and have my home checked to see that the fencing was secure and that I had considered how a dog and all the inevitable equipment all dog owners end up collecting would fit in. Then I had to wait until the holidays were over - like many rescue centres the Dogs Trust will not rehome over Christmas, as dogs need peace, quiet and routine to settle into their new homes. I had decided Sammy was not a name that suited him, so I had to pick a new one - Henry was my mum's suggestion and it was a name that stuck. Then of course there was all the shopping that needed doing: this was slightly hindered by moving from a Lab to a spaniel and having no real idea of what size anything needed to be. Poor Henry rattled around his new bed like a pea in a bucket!

And so, on 3rd January 2009, Henry came home with me for good. Things were never going to be the same again!



Henry, the spaniel formerly known as Sammy, the day I met him. Happily, there is much less of him these days!