SISTERLY LOVE.

                  www.abcanimalsanctuary.co.uk

          Pip, the dobermann puppy’s story as told to Alexandra Bastedo.

                                            I have had the most exciting week as my sister Boogie came to visit me with her adopted family, Mr. and Mrs. Turner from Southsea and their other dog- a nine month old dobermann bitch called Jazz.

                                           Unfortunately Nellie was kept in another room during the visit as she is not partial to other large black dobermann bitches, which was a shame from my point of view as I felt outnumbered and by now I am used to having Nellie as my protector. In fact to tell you the truth when the two dogs arrived I was absolutely terrified and peed on the spot. So much time had elapsed that at first I didn’t recognise my sister Boogie, but there was something familiar about her and after a few sniffs we relaxed and started playing like we used to do.

                                          I still have the egg-shaped bump on the top of my head from the injury I sustained when the two of us played too roughly back in Wales but I had forgotten how tough she was. I think maybe she had been having a lot of wrestling practice with her larger dobermann friend, Jazz, because I found her, if possible, even worse than before. As we raced around she kept on sending me flying and sometimes she would jump on me and knock me over and I would end up on my back underneath. It was so humiliating, but I may be a little out of practice - Nellie at the age of six is much more sedate and won’t let me maul or tackle her. However I do have quite a large assortment of stuffed toys that I throw from side to side and pretend to kill and several chews I can sink my teeth into so I wasn’t entirely off form.

                                               Still after 2 hours of my sister’s company it all got too much. We just couldn’t stop beating each other up so I had to be rescued and put in my cage for a bit until we both quietened down. Much as I enjoyed the visit it was something of a relief when they left and life returned to normal. It also made me appreciate Nellie all the more. She  may tell me off occasionally when I annoy her but she never beats me up! 

                            Life at the sanctuary continues to be endlessly fascinating with all kinds of animals and birds that I am not  supposed to chase- though I still manage to when nobody is looking. I have also discovered that horse manure tastes really good – Nellie likes it too – but we tend to get told off if we so much as touch it. Apart from that and stealing food off any surface I can reach I think I have been reasonably good this week - I have learnt how to use the dog flap and how to walk on a harness and lead . Now my vaccinations are over I will soon be going on walks in the great outside world- I can’t wait I wonder what new exciting smells there will be and what new animals and people I will meet.

                                                   by Alexandra Bastedo

Author of the vet recommended “The Healthy Cat” and “The Healthy Dog” books and “Beware Dobermanns, Donkeys and Ducks”. Alexandra is also the founder of the ABC Animal Sanctuary www.abcanimalsanctuary.co.uk which has over 150 animals and is staffed entirely by volunteers. Any donations, adoptions or sponsorships are very much appreciated to enable us to continue with our work of rescuing animals.

Copyright A.L.Bastedo

Getting Older

                                  www.abcanimalsanctuary.co.uk

                 THE STORY OF PIP, THE DOBERMANN PUPPY, AS TOLD TO

                                               ALEXANDRA BASTEDO

                  I am now 13 weeks old and I am noticing some distinct changes in myself. The main one is that I have grown a little and can no longer get through the holes in the  fencing to get at the cat food in the catteries on the other side. However on the plus side I am taller and this means I can get at things on top of tables, sideboards and desks that I couldn’t before. So far I have succeeded in pulling down reading glasses, knives and forks, butter, a jug of cream, newspapers, paper napkins, important letters, bills and books – I had great fun shredding all the paper and loved ripping off the book cover. I did get told off but at the moment life is just so much fun and I have a very short memory so I tend to forget and do it all over again the moment no-one is looking.

                         I have been observing Nellie, the grown-up dobermann, and try to copy her a lot of the time. I have observed her peeing and doing her number twos outside and have been highly praised when I have done the same so a lot of the time we do it in unison. I find it much better than being scolded for doing it all inside the house so I haven’t made a mistake in that department for some time. Actually that is not quite true I was so frightened when I went to the vet I did a number two, stepped in it, got through the dog guard and spread it round the car. I don’t think my owner was very pleased as it took her half an hour to clean it!

                                     I spend quite a lot of time playing with the cats. Alfie the 17 year old is quite the naughtiest. He spends quite a lot of his time trying to ambush me but I have decided to stop pouncing on him as although he doesn’t have any teeth any more his claws can be quite painful. I used to like playing with Caspar the eighteen year old ginger boy but he is rather a spoil sport and spends most of his time on top of the furniture these days and only comes down when he knows I am asleep- even his food is on top of a high table so I can’t get at it.  Ollie , the white Persian who used to live with 30 cats and dogs in a tiny house, is the most friendly and seems to quite enjoy my company. He certainly doesn’t disappear like Fluff and Gustav – two more oldies whose owner died – who  tend to leave the room whenever they spot me. I really get told off if I try to chase them which is a real shame as it is so much fun running after moving things.

                                   However I have to admit to being terrified of some of the other animals at the sanctuary. Paris, the deaf cat, and Tigga, the tabby stalk me sometimes and hiss so I give them a wide berth and the sheep are quite frightening. In fact Nellie told me to be very careful – when Katie and her two lambs, Kylie and Kim, were running loose they actually used to chase Nellie and the other dobermann, Ponto, to the point where they were afraid to go out of the garden. As a result the sheep were banned to the field and now co-habit with Marty and Shabba, the large horses, and the two Wiltshire Longhorn castrated rams. We are kept away from the donkeys and ponies too – and Nellie says it is just as well as they can kick. However the real shame is that all the chickens and ducks are kept behind a very high fence with an elecrified wire round the bottom. When I tried to get at them I got zapped so I won’t be doing that again! 

                                 

                                       

     Alexandra Bastedo is the author of “Beware Dobermanns, Donkeys and Ducks” and “The Healthy Cat” and “The Healthy Dog ” books. She is the founder of the ABC Animal Sanctuary www.abcanimalsanctuary.co.uk which has over 150 animals and birds and is staffed entirely by volunteers. Any money donated on our website is used entirely for the welfare of the animals.

Copyright A.L. Bastedo

                         

                                 

Learning from Nellie 25th February

                       by PIP as told to ALEXANDRA BASTEDO.

              At last Nellie, the big black dobermann bitch, has stopped snarling at me. Actually that isn’t entirely true as sometimes she lies down in MY bed in MY cage and won’t let me in growling at me all the time until my owner comes to get her out. However most of the time now she is really nice and friendly letting me lie down beside her on her bed and taking me around with her everywhere she goes.

                                   “You have always had such beautifully behaved puppies” said one visitor” so it’s time you had one like this!” I don’t know quite what they meant by that but I do know they think I am very clever. I am after all only 12 weeks old and I already know how to swing on door handles until they open and if the bolt isn’t on the gate upstairs I can get my head under the gate and force it open. Then once I am upstairs I can raid all the food left in the cats’ bowls up there. 

                           However, Nellie is my real teacher. She took me round the garden into the back door of the conservatory through the sitting room where our master’s elderly cat called Bagpuss was sitting and showed me where his cat bowl full of food was kept.  However we were caught and Nellie was told off and we were told to get out but five minutes later I managed to sneak back in on my own and scoffed the lot.  

                 When we were allowed out of the garden past the poultry enclosure Nellie showed me how to push another gate that had been left ajar and get into the catteries where we can also pinch more cat food. And because I am much smaller than her I have now found my way through a hole in the wire fence so I can get through when Nellie cannot which leaves her very cross the other side. The cats all look rather amazed when I come in but so far none of them has challenged me so I have been able to sample quite a variety of delicious cat food. That is not to say that I don’t get fed well – I do – four times a day – and they have got rid of my worms as well – but somehow there is something very enticing about cat food. In fact the only cat food I haven’t been able to reach is Caspar’s, the old ginger cat who lives in the kitchen. His plate is put high up out of the way on a table in the utility room  – but I know as I get bigger I will be able to get  it in the end!

                       Alexandra Bastedo is the author of “Beware Dobermanns, Donkeys and Ducks” and “The Healthy Cat” and “the Healthy Dog ” books (both recommended by vets). She is the founder of the ABC Animal Sanctuary for unwanted animals www.abcanimalsanctuary.co.uk which is staffed entirely by volunteers and where 100 per cent of any donations goes entirely in looking after the animals.

Copyright A.L.Bastedo

February 22nd

              PIP’S DIARY AS TOLD TO  ALEXANDRA BASTEDO.

              I was born 12 weeks ago in Carmarthen in Wales along with 9 brothers and sisters. However 10 puppies was a lot for our mother Cassie, a beautiful brown doberman to handle so it was hardly surprising that Suzie Williams her owner decided when I was 11 weeks old to drive me all the way to West Chiltington in Sussex to a couple and their black doberman bitch who had just lost Ponto their brown dobermann prematurely to cancer. I have to say that although I loved them dearly it was a great relief to leave my nine biting, screaming, fighting brothers and sisters and to finally have a place of my own. Nellie, the black dobermann, was a bit hostile to me at first – snarling a lot – but she didn’t actually touch me so it was really all bluff and making sure I knew she was boss. But quite honestly after the mayhem of my previous existence with all my siblings just as demanding as me there was nothing she did that could remotely phase me.

         It was the same with my new owners repeatedly saying “NO” or “AH AH” or “DOWN”. Most of the time I just managed to ignore them and a few minutes later would go right back to doing what I was doing before. However, there was one thing they would do occasionally when they were fed up with me and that is put me in a dog cage. But I found I rather liked it as there was always a hot water bottle in there. a non-spill water bowl and some toys. They also fed me in there so the big dog couldn’t pinch my food so it has become my haven, my very own space where I can collapse when I am tired and not be bothered by anything happening outside at all.

                      However, I do think I have landed on my feet – or paws – as where I am is actually an animal sanctuary. This means there are lots of things to chase like cats and ducks and moorhens. People keep on shouting at me and telling me to stop but quite honestly it is far too much fun and it takes them a while to get hold of me, pick me up and carry me indoors. Inside too there seem to be cats in every room but most of the time when they see me they jump up on tables or sideboards or vanish out the cat flap. In fact today I got stuck trying to get through it chasing a white feline called Dancer but after I squealed and screamed the house down after a telling off  my owners came and released me which was something of a relief as I was well and truly stuck.

Copyright Alexandra Bastedo.

Alexandra Bastedo is the author of “Beware Dobermanns, Donkeys and Ducks” and “The Healthy Cat” and “The Healthy Dog ” books .She is the founder of the ABC Animal Sanctuary www.abcanimalsaanctuary.co.uk  an organisation staffed entirely by volunteers where all the proceeds go to looking after the animals.

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