Dogs

My sister was given a black miniature poodle for her 8th birthday as Mum and Dad then thought she was old enough to be responsible to look after it and take it for walks with one of them.  She was a lovely little dog and my sister called her Candy.  We were living in Watford at the time and I have already told the story that it was Candy that didn't get on with our cat Sooty and so Sooty went to live with my grandparents in the country.

I really wanted a puppy for myself but I was too young; isn't it frustrating that at whatever stage you are in life you are either too young, too old or "don't worry, it is your age"!!!

Three years later, when we were living in Whitstable, my parents decided that it was time to allow Candy to have a litter of puppies.  I didn't really understand anything about dogs giving birth to puppies but I soon learned.  Mum had created a nice cosy corner in the kitchen under the kitchen table in the corner.  There was a large cardboard box with a cut out in the front and sheets of newspaper and an old blanket inside to make it comfy.  The box and surrounding floor was covered in newspaper to try and keep the floor a bit cleaner.  One morning I went downstairs to find 3 of the puppies had been born and Candy was in the process of giving birth to the fourth.  I actually saw the puppy being born which must have been an eyeopener!  All of the puppies were males which was disappointing as Mum and Dad had hoped one would be a bitch and she would have become my 8th birthday present.  Mum and Dad had been savvy though and arranged with the stud dug's owner that if there no bitches they would be able to exchange one for a bitch that they had from other litters.  I think another of our puppies was the fee for Candy being put to the stud dog.  In due course we received the promised little bitch puppy which was given to me and I called her Suki.  I am sure the name must have meant something to me at the time but I have no recollection of it.

We had such fun with our dogs and they were very good natured; Suki even let me dress her up with a bonnet to help keep the sun from her eyes and also take her for walks in my dolls pram.  I must try and find the photo that was taken like Suki in the pram in the back garden in our house in Upminster.

Poodles, of course, have wool and not hair.  It grows quite quickly and is curly.  Mum and Dad use to have them cut with a "lamb's cut" so that the dogs didn't have those pom poms on their legs but they did have pom pom tails which back in that time were legal to dock.  One lasting memory is the smell of singed wool.  We had a little electric two bar radiant heater in the downstairs room and the dogs would snuggle up close and had been known, in fact many a time, to turn round and round before lying down and toasting themselves in front of it.  The trouble was the tails with their fluffy pom poms often touched the electric bar and singed .....phew, what a whiff!!

Another memory from Upminster was when we had set the table for tea in the dining room......cutlery, crockery, cake, bread, jams and the butter in the butter dish and then the doorbell rang!  Without thinking my Mum quickly pushed the dogs into the dining room so they didn't escape and dealt with the caller at the front door.  She let the dogs out again when she had closed the front door but oh dear.....Candy, or was it Suki, had jumped on the table and knocked the butter dish to floor and they both had butter round their mouths where they were busy licking it.

Dad loved to tease the dogs, not mercilessly, just gentle fun for them and us and never taken to extreme.  One day he recorded their bark and his voice talking to them.  He then put the recorder on the floor behind a mirror he balanced against a dining chair at the side of the dining room.  The dogs rushed to the mirror at the sound, saw themselves in the mirror and started barking back.  They ran to each side, couldn't see a dog and ran to the front again ... the dogs were there again...they just couldn't understand why they couldn't find them round the back!!  This was after we had moved back to Hertfordshire and living in Radlett.  Poodles are prone to blindness and unfortunately Suki's eyes slowly misted over and she relied on furniture staying in the same place or following Candy around as her guide dog.  Otherwise she lived a normal healthy life.  Candy developed a tumor which in time meant she had to be put to sleep and put out of her discomfort.  Suki was lost, she had lost her guide dog, she had lost the dog she had known all her life and had treated as her mother.  We all know how hard it is to lose a loved one, don't we.  After a while and a few injuries from knocking in to things, there was only one thing to do to be kind and so we became a dogless family again.