November 18, 2011

• The Tale of Thus

  

  Our family have only had one pet and that was a little dog (Terrier Jack-Russel mix) called ‘Thus’ he was short and long and lived a wonderful life that I will always remember.

  As with most pets you really don’t realise how much they mean to you and how much time you spend with them until they are gone and even though he’s been dead many years now I still remember him fondly.

  When we first got him we had to drive to the place where he and his siblings were and when we got there me my brother and my mum all picked up one pup each and tried to decide which one was the best. Mine was a small and sleepy little chap who was at the bottom of the squirming pile of puppies and promptly fell asleep when I picked him up, my mum picked up a very furry and fluffy little pup who was much more lively, but my brother picked up Thus and due to the distinctive white marking on his neck we agreed he was the one.

  So we popped him in a box and drove him home, unfortunately the noise and strangeness of the car and his abduction from home clearly had an impact and from that day on he was terrified by cars and would usually spend any trip with his head stuck under the front seats shivering.

  

  When we got him home we still hadn’t picked a name, we now with my dad in the team we all sat around and had a good ponder. Eventually after none of us could settle on something we liked my Dad came out with Thus, and since it was rather pleasingly abstract we agreed.

  We lived and still do in the Highlands of Scotland and there is wilderness almost everywhere so we often went for long walks and hikes. Initially little Thus loved these but since his legs were quite short he quickly became tired and when he was young my dad would often end up carrying him home wrapped around his neck like a scarf.

  But as he grew he quickly became much more fit than all of us and we’d often play for hours kicking a football up and down a near by croft with Thus usually either outpacing us with the ball or often running up and down the croft many times over after it.

  As is so often the case Dogs start to take on the aspects of their owners (or visa versa) and we couldn’t have asked for a more fitting companion, he was kind and understanding, enjoyed the peace and quiet, was VERY lazy and didn’t get on with members of his own species.
  There are so many great images and stories of him of course but I shall only share a few highlights, He loved fishing floats, and one particular hard plastic one was just the right size for him to almost get his mouth onto. It was while he was playing with this float that he first discovered how to growl it sort of surprised him at first but then he got more confident and would growl viciously and look out of the corner of his eyes at you if you tried to get too close.

  

  And even thought he loved to go out on boats (and bark at seals) he hated the water and wasn’t a fan of swimming atall, possibly because during one trip out on the Canoes (again when he was quite young) and not knowing that water gave way he stepped out of the boat after the swirl that follows a paddle, his little shocked face when he emerged was a treat.

  The most dramatic event of his life was one night when we’d let him out (it’s so empty here we often just let him out on his own and he’d come back when he was ready to come in, giving a single little warning bark for the door to be opened) but this night it was a pretty bad storm and after a few hours he wasn’t back, we listened and thought we heard barking but due to the wind we couldn’t hear where he was, eventually we went to bed he’d been out all night before and has been fine.

  The next morning I looked through the patterned glass of the front door and saw a familiar black shape, but when I opened the door Thus staggered in bedraggled and covered with blood. I let him in and he collapsed onto blankets we had in the front room, going out side to check for any evidence I found a single little bloody paw print where he’s stopped to drink from a bucket filled with water.

  By the looks of the many small puncture wounds on his head and neck we guessed he’d tried to go for an Otter somewhere and had of course been outmatched by the incredible agility of the creature. And due to the toxicity of the wounds he spent the next few weeks if not month basically lying on his side as his face swelled up, he almost died.
  Afterwards his personality was a little more harsh and it took another few months after his recovery before he was pretty much back to normal.

  Before the Otter he would snore while sleeping but afterwards his snoring became a lot louder but it was still one of the most wonderfully relaxing and peaceful sounds to drift off with.

  

  I can honestly say I loved Thus he was a perfect companion and lived for around 14 years all the way through most of my childhood, he would always play and was amazingly gentle despite being able to bite clean through a telephone directory. But my most fond memories will always be just sitting with him listening to his quiet breathing and sharing that wonderful trust and companionship dogs do so well.

  Eventually of course he got old and bit by bit slowed down until (due to sore rheumatic joints) he would no longer go on even short walks, the best he’d do was to walk 5 mins down the road and then I’d carry him around some of the usual smells and interesting things.

  And then one night he crawled under the fire, which is a lovely multi-fuel aga with just enough space underneath it for him to fit and was a favourite place for him to get cooked up before crawling out panting and collapsing somewhere to cool down.
  But this time was his last and his death was one of the best examples of it’s kind I can imagine.

  He’d been slowing down over the past few weeks until eventually he just stopped eating, and then drinking. Then he went under the fire and lay there for most of the day, we patted him and stayed with him, and in the evening he began to bark as if he was giving death a good barking, he would stop if I put my hand on him but begin again as soon as I moved it, and then he went quiet and just breathed slowly.
  The best thing was that he waited until my mum had gotten home and had chance to say good bye before he finally died.

  His death seemed noble and accepting to me and although sad filled me with a kind of joy that he’d left how he chose and surrounded by his adopted pack.

  

  It’s incredible how we can share such a bond between species, the very idea that we take another entire creature into our homes and lives and care for them and interact with them daily is really quite strange when you look at it.

  Not really sure why I wrote all this or if it will be interesting in the slightest to anyone else but I was supposed to be getting on with work and this blog was a good excuse to skive, so if you managed to get to the end of this rather long and pointless post first off thanks and second I hope you enjoyed meeting little Thus because he was a fine example of a dog.     

  • 9:20 am
  • 36 Comments