A few years ago, a friend of mine decided to buy a dog. She already had cats and rabbits and was a complete animal person. She wanted a dog, which would fit in with their life style and would not need a lot of exercise to be happy. As a good Yorkshire girl, she chose the ‘British Bulldog’. She bought a beautiful female pedigree puppy. Ellie was a fabulous dog, playful and happy, and with a lot of skin to grow into. The puppy grew and settled down into the family, she ate her meals and grew, and did not chase the cats, oh and she grew. This sounds like an ideal situation and it was except that the dog was on her own for a lot of the day. My friend went to work and their new companion did not impress the cats. My friend felt very guilty about leaving the puppy each morning.
Therefore, she made a decision, she went back to the breeder and bought another puppy. This was a distant relative of the first one and so everyone assumed it would be a clone and have the say calm, friendly, easy- going nature. Well it was not quite like that.
The new puppy was much more excitable and energetic than the first one. She was much more confident as there was already another dog in the family and Duffy wanted to play with everything.
As a puppy when out in the garden she often followed the cats, at a distance watching them and trying to do the things they did. Her main obsession was the cat flap. These cats were put outside, just as she was, but they could get back in whenever they wanted. Duffy thought that she should be able to do the same but even as a puppy, she could not work out how to get through. Nevertheless, she had that ‘Bulldog’ character and she kept trying, and trying. First, she would put her paw through and then try to follow it with the head, when this did not work the tip of the nose went through and then she could just insert one paw. But nothing more, that was the limit.
As her strength and bulk grew, she realised that if she charged some of the doors in the house they would open for her. But, she had to take a run at then and then ram them with her forehead. In fact she got many of the things she wanted by ramming doors and the back of peoples legs and the food bags and Ellie. She tried the cat flap, she ran at the door and rammed it, the door splintered, and the cat flap fell out. Unfortunately, Duffy could still not get in the house because the hole was too small.
The door and the cat flap were replaced by reinforced larger models and peace reigned for a while. One sunny summer’s day she and Ellie were outside making sure the cats behaved correctly and barking at birds etc, when there was a wonderful smell. It was coming from the kitchen my friend was cooking bacon for bacon sandwiches.
The dogs were right at the top of the garden and it was a long garden. Duffy started to run; she built up speed until she was going as fast as a bulldog can. Then she rammed the cat flap. It groaned, and gave a little, encouraged by this sound and by the bacon smell; she turned around and ran back up the garden.
Her head went down and the speed was built up again. Four huge paws thundering down the garden path and then Wumph! She made it; her whole head was through the cat flap. The shoulders would not go through the door was too strong. She backed up and there was an enormous creaking sound as the cat flap detached itself from the door, it was stuck on her ears.
Unfortunately, no one had a camera at that moment, to tell the truth it would have been a very shaky picture because the whole household was convulsed with laughter. Duffy was running around the lawn with her head firmly wedged into the cat flap. Her Bulldog spirit was not dimmed but she was a very confused dog.
Sheila Vine
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