Pip the dobermann puppy’s story as told to Alexandra Bastedo.
The first time it happened – this loud deep bark – I looked behind me expecting it to be Nellie my big dobermann friend but she wasn’t there. I was rather confused but when I barked at a monster (which was an empty compost bag blowing in the wind) later that day I realised it was me. My voice had broken at the age of five and a half months. Of course since then I like the sound of my own sonorous voice so much that I bark at everything. My owners get bored with me and tell me to “Be quiet” or “Shut up” but I have a short memory so it isn’t long before I find something else to bark at again. The best fun is barking at the neighbours’ dogs across the lane because they answer back and we go on and on until our owners drag us back into the house out of earshot.
Getting bigger I have found has advantages and disadvantages. On the down side I find I can’t fit into cat beds any longer and can only sit with my bottom in and my paws out so it is not very comfortable. Also I can no longer barge through some of the holes in the wire fencing which seem to be a lot smaller now which means I can’t get to the cat houses and cat food the other side. However I did get under the gate to the Shetland ponies when nobody was looking and was kicked by Raffles but fortunately it was only a warning and I certainly won’t go there again!
My larger size now means that everything in the food line is more accessible and I even managed to get from the chair on to the table and on to the sideboard where the fresh eggs are kept- and scoffed the lot. I can also open all the garbage containers and pull out all the empty packets of cat food which I shred around the kitchen and my latest achievement is not only pushing down door handles and opening the doors outwards but actually managing to open the doors inwards as well – so now nothing is safe. Books. loo rolls, makeup, toothpaste all are now easily accessed and destroyed and I find I need a regular turn-over to keep me amused.
I find my toys rather boring now as I have disemboweled most of them which means only the squeak and the fabric remain. My monkey with the long arms is still okay that I flail from side to side beating myself over the head as I do so and one of the quacking bird toys which sounds just like the real ducks on the pond. I have tried several times to bring home a live one to play with despite getting shouted at but so far have not had any success—-.
My owner was rather alarmed when she found a dead furry animal at the bottom of the pond. When she fished it out with a large fishing net covered in green algae the people watching were most distressed. However I was very pleased as they had finally found my missing white teddy bear which I had inadvertently let go while chasing a moorhen the week before. It has been in the washing machine and has returned to its former snowy white colour but it does have a rather soggy squeak now which is a bit pathetic. But what a lot of fun it was to see the consternation of the people watching. It was a great joke so I must throw some more toys in the pond again soon–
Copyright Alexandra Bastedo.
Alexandra is the founder of the ABC Animal Sanctuary for rescued and abandoned animals on www.abcanimalsanctuary.co.uk which depends on your kind donations – however small- to keep and maintain the animals. A photo of Pip appears on the web site.
Signed copies of her animal books are also available .
