Willow's story
Hi There, my name is Willow and I have been given a page on this my masters website to tell you all about me...so I thought I might publish my story for your enjoyment.
Well I guess, I'd best start at my arrival to my new home...I was a little puppy back then and I had only been around for about eight weeks!
The journey home was pretty long, but it was OK because when we got into the big metal thing with wheels on it ,I sat on my mistresses lap...the master or "he of little fur" as I have come to know him calls my mistress Emma...so I guess that must be her name, they have been using the name Willow around me quite a lot...so I suspect they are naming me!!!
It seems like a strange concept this naming thing...I have lived all my life without a name and suddenly I have one...Oh well...could have been worse...I've met dogs named...well, I best not say, us dogs are temperamental beasts don't you know!
When I saw my home for the first time, it was much bigger that the kennel I was raised in with all my brothers and sisters...and when I got inside...Wow so many chewy things...I could see I was in chewy heaven...well, that's what I thought, but "he of little fur" kept using this other word...at first I thought I was being given a double barrelled name as it always followed the new name they had given me...I soon found out that WILLOW-NO was not a name but an instruction.
Mind you I did have a bit of a game with "he of little fur". I called the game "10 Willow-No's" because that's how many times I used to make him say it before I pretended to understand...I didn't push it beyond the 10 mark mind you because he used to get all red and steamy at around that number...I didn't want him having a heart attack or something...but it was funny!
I saw the red steamy face of "he of little fur" a few times, normally after he came home from a days...what did he call it...that's it, work. Once I really did think he was gonna pop. I didn't understand that he wouldn't like my re-decoration of the big glass room.
Then the bugger got smart...he taught me how to "sit", "stay", "lay down" by treating me with little tit-bits...Mmmm tasty tit-bits, I'd do almost anything for a tasty tit-bit...That was it he found my Achilles heel (what you think cos I'm a dog I don't know my Greek mythology!) well once he knew that I knew them few simple words that was it, it was Willow sit, Willow Stay, Willow lay down...you get the picture, that's when I decided that "he with little fur" was smarter than I realised...and it proved better to work with him than against him...once I worked that out, he was alright ...I even let him think he is the boss...he explains it to his other two legged friends it's because he's the alpha male or such sum nonsense.
Mind you I remember this one time...he wasn't such an alpha male then...let me tell you...he had what my mistress referred to as man-flu, apparently it's really serious and I nearly lost him...but I helped look after him and he soon recovered.
Once we started working together he would take me "up the
field" I still don't get it, we live in the Fens (yes...I even know my local geography)
there is no up!...never mind, anyway, It normally consists of "he with little fur" feeding and talking
to all these other animals...mind you he can't be that smart, none of the
animals that he talks to ever sit, stay or lay down on command.
Their are a lot of other animals "up the field" and I have made many new friends
along the way.
Then one day a big metal box on wheels arrived and took all the stuff from our home and took it to another place...I kept hearing my mistress and "he of little fur" talking about "moving"...they made it sound so stressful...but, from what I could see they were both moving fine, no limping or anything!
They told me that the new place was our new home...I didn't understand what was wrong with the old one!?!...then I saw the new "up the field" WOW there was loads of it!
It was great "he of little fur" and I had loads of time "up the field" and we had loads of new friends to play with...
Then...I started noticing a change in my mistress...it was just how my auntie went...I knew what was coming...PUPPIES!
Well there wasn't the seven or eight puppies that I was hoping for, there was just the one, and my mistress and "he of little fur" where fussing over it so much...I just wanted them to get out the way so I play and take the new one "up the field"...
Funny thing human puppies...they don't do much! well that's not totally true, they make a lot of noise and smell up the place...but apart from that...nothing!.
They did the naming thing with the new one as they keep calling him Finley.
Well Finley has been with us now for eight passing's of the moon, which is getting on a bit and still he's not that good on his feet! at his age I was a fast runner and jumper!
I've since found out from a very old wise dog that human puppies are very slow developers at the running and jumping...he also warned me that there was a long period of poking and pulling that they do!...but on the up side, he said that human puppies stay puppies for a long long time so I would have a friend forever!
Well...that's my story so far, perhaps I'll do a part two in the future, until then take care and be good...got to go...we're going "up the field"