Tina's Story |
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Tina, puppy from friend born 1st March 1955 was 11½ when she died on 10th August 1966  |
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Tina
born 1st March 1955 Soon after we moved to Long Lane with Richard we heard of a litter of puppies from a friend who wanted homes for them. We went to visit Bryan and the mother dog duly showed off her brood to us. We liked the little black girl and she became our third pet, (second black!). I suppose Tina as she was tiny! We had missed my mother's dog Judy who we had got used to taking for boyfriend/girlfriend walks so were pleased to get our own little puppy. It was still Spring when we got her so the evenings were not yet fully light and as the best place to take her for wolks was Victoria Park - not too far along Long Lane. We set out from the beginning to train her properly. This involved a proper walk every night to the local park; training her to walk correctly to heel with a loose lead and teaching her to sit at the kerbs while waiting to cross the street. She was so well behaved very quickly, that we could leave her on one kerb while we crossed and then call her over only when we were ready. Tina had to have a good collar and name tag right from the start and we found that a proper dog harness was much better for the lead than the collar. I made up a little gadget consisting of a battery and a red torch bulb. This was attached to her harness and switched on before we told her it was OK to run. There were many late night walkers in that park who were surprised to see this red light streaking around the park just nine inches off the ground! We moved to Hamilton Way in 1958 and years later Tina surprised us by giving birth! Tina, our little black streak of lightning was almost eight years old and getting, we thought, a bit fatter. But no - she was pregnant and gave us a big surprise when all unannounced she produced a puppy. She went on to have four altogether over a couple of days of which one was stillborn and one died after a few days. The other two were perfectly healthy and were still nursing when Nooky had her kittens. After the kittens started to get around, we began to lose track of which were which as they would often end up all asleep in the same cosy animal bed; usually Tina's as that was bigger, so this time, Tina got the job of looking after kittens. The boy who survived grew into a very headstrong dog and kept running off. He was only 4 when he was run over several streets away but his sister lived to 16 years old. There is more about Tina and the pups in our History, Chapters 2 and 7. Tina was with us from 1955 until she died aged almost 11½ on 10th August 1966. |
