Here it is "Life with my Newfoundlands"

 

 

Out at last, it’s funny how long things seem to take when you’re fighting with your computer or at least it does to me. Anyway we won, the new books on Amazon and Kindle now. It is a clean book the only reference to sex is when William the stud is put with a bitch and that has it’s problems. It is a very different book as it doesn’t really fit comfortably into any particular genre. It’s the first book I’ve written in the first person, because it was written for me but I thought you might like it.

amazon.com/dp/B00JY83NJO

Picture of Hogan

I’m afraid I just couldn’t get the book ready to launch this Friday, I had an issue with the cover picture it’s now resolved and we should be on the book stalls next week, well Amazon and Kindle. They are the book stalls of today aren’t they? Not only that but I held back from writing this piece so I’m in a bit of a fix. All I can say is sorry will try to do better.

Here is the picture I’ve been wrestling with hope you like it.

Newfoundland this and that

 

 

I still have the leads and collars, the feeding bowls of all my Newfies these together with four cigar boxes with their ashes in  are all I have to remind me of twenty wonderful years during which they were my constant companions.  There are also the few photos on the dining room wall and if you look at my Twitter page you will see them in situ as I enjoy them.

It was after I had already written five fictional books that I felt ready for book based closely on these years, I altered very little by way of the story or the action of the dogs it would have been wrong to alter anything about their individual characters. People and places can easily be distorted in the memory so I have used new names for them though I do remember them as supportive and in the main attractive. Vets have always played a big part, if I suspected literally anything was wrong off we would go to see them, especially for my dogs, prevention was always the better option. Because of this Meg was able to live a long and I believe happy life against all the odds. William died without pain and so did Osca. Even on Hogan’s last night Mike called the vet out to give him a jab to lessen the pain he was obviously in.

It has always been my rule that unless you can afford to fully care for your pet, it is better not to have one. People who buy pets because as a young animal they look attractive or for any other selfish reason are doing the animal a great disservice. Since mankind domesticated animals they have become reliant on their owners for their welfare and it is a responsibility that should not be taken lightly or inadequately financed. No matter how you look at it keeping a pet can be very expensive, some are extremely expensive and in any other circumstances most people would look after that size of investment. There are of course owners who love their pets but have never studied the animal’s needs before acquiring them. For example some animals will eat almost anything whether it be good or bad for them and the indulgent, ignorant owner will feed them endless titbits and wonder why they end up with a fat unhealthy animal. Each animal and I am only really interested in dogs and horses, has needs and it is up to us to learn about them as part of the preparation of ownership.

In my book ‘Life with my Newfoundlands’ soon to be published I have tried to show my approach to living with them and the huge return I received from them.

Hogan the last Newfoundland

 

Hogan was not much younger than Osca, a really beautiful Newfoundland the colour of his coat and his confirmation would, I am sure, have made him a successful show dog. However in his younger days we had been too busy with our businesses to have had the time with Osca and him. Sadly Osca’s personality was such that Hogan was over awed and he tended to live in the shadow of his partner.

When Osca died Hogan seemed to be released, also by this time we had retired and had much more time to devote to him. It took a little while for him to get used to this new found freedom and we tried to encourage him to come out of his shell, so to speak. During the time he was by himself we included him as part of the family and took him everywhere with us, he was naturally quiet which despite his size made him acceptable virtually anywhere. If it was a case of no dogs allowed we simply didn’t go. However he was never able to fully adapt to it and always seemed to retain a certain reticence. Meg was my friend and companion, William bonded with Mike, Osca fell in love with Karen our daughter and Hogan never formed a deep bond with anyone. It is to my deep regret that we had to leave them to their own devices and Osca’s stronger personality had won out.

I am sure Hogan would have been a much more rounded personality if only we could have had the time to care for him and Osca as we had for William and Meg. We had two or three years to make up to Hogan before he left us and I treasure them, I am absolutely sure that he had more to give than his upbringing allowed.  Hopefully I will be able to use a picture of him on the cover of my new book ‘Life with my Newfoundlands’ due to be published in the very near future (thought I’d get a plug in there). No the reason I mention it, is that it typically reflects his personality, you can see it in his eyes a sort of an interested but far away look.

If you can call death natural then Hogan was the only one of the Newfies to die without the vet’s help, he died by his own choice by himself in the garden in Wales. He died peacefully, Mike found him late at night permanently asleep beside the hedge. He had gone to the back door and asked to go out and never came back. Our last Newfoundland, we had decided when we first got Hogan as a little puppy that he would be our last, it was time for change.

 

Osca the independent Newfoundland

Osca was so different from Meg and William he lived life on his terms, yes like all Newfoundlands he was loving and friendly but he was his own man (well dog). From the start he respected  William as the older dog and learnt much from him and although they were buddies they were not close friend as William and Meg had been. Fortunately William had this easy going nature and accepted Osca as he was and even though they were very different they never fell out.

When William was put down Osca showed no signs of missing him and continued on with life without him. I often think that to some extent the fact that I couldn’t spend much time with him (due solely to my work) was the root cause of his self sufficient life style. It may sound that he was an unaffectionate dog and that is far from the truth he loved life and he loved us and showed it too, but he just didn’t seem to have the same whole hearted commitment to us that Meg had. I always thought William was a big dog but Osca out grew him and weighed well over 180lbs when he an adult.

Maybe we had got used to two dogs and it was our wish to have a second dog, not in any way Osca’s need. Mike had always hankered after a brown Newfie so Hogan arrived, not immediately welcomed by Osca. In fact when he first arrived he was ignored by the canine side of the family though welcomed and fussed over by the humans. What made it worse is that my daughter and grand children were staying and of course they all loved a puppy. Not for long Osca soon made his presence felt though at the time there were just too many humans for him to ingratiate himself with so Hogan got his due share. It was however going to be a permanent feature of the dog relationship whenever someone tried to make a fuss of Hogan Osca would push him out of the way. In the end Mike would fuss one dog and I the other, it was the only way Hogan got some love.

There were times when Osca would physically object to Hogan some need to prove himself no doubt; this ended up to his disadvantage as we had him castrated. From then on he was better behaved though not totally cured and we also had to watch his weight, he was apt to put it on very rapidly as a by product of his lost manhood and was put on strict rations. Despite what may seem to be a rogue dog he had many lovely characteristics and was admired and loved by many. But Newfoundland’s are subject to hip displeasure and Osca was no exception he was a large heavy dog and eventually his back legs gave out. I left it to Mike and the vet to relieve him of his disability in the kitchen. It was the loss of our third Newfoundland and this time he would not be replaced.