Muttley's Tale E-Book

Brian L. Porter

• Herausgeber: Next Chapter
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Soon after the Porters adopted the former bait dog, Sheba, they decided to add another Staffordshire Bull Terrier to their pack of rescue dogs. A visit to their local rescue sanctuary saw them adopting a six-month old puppy, part of an abandoned litter that had literally been dumped at the gates of the sanctuary.

They named him Muttley and he was soon assimilated into their canine family. They were't aware at the time, but poor Muttley had not one, but two unusual psychological problems that would lead to this little boy needing special treatment for the rest of his life. Most importantly, they had to learn to cope with an agoraphobic dog. This beautiful dog was quite simply afraid of wide open spaces!

Can you imagine owning a dog that's afraid to go out for walks, or to enjoy running and playing with his packmates? How they learned to cope with Muttley's problem and his secondary issue of being afraid of other dogs is here in his story.

Muttley's Tale is a story of love, understanding and patience, as Brian and Juliet gradually learned ways to bring happiness into Muttley's life, at times seemingly against the odds. Muttley is a real character who, despite his problems, has brought fun and laughter to the family.

Leseprobe

MUTTLEY'S TALE

FAMILY OF RESCUE DOGS BOOK 8

BRIAN L. PORTER

CONTENTS

Muttley

Introduction

1. Staffy Hunt

2. A New Home

3. Days out with Muttley

4. Operation

5. Flaws and Paws

6. Another Puppy!

7. An Agoraphobic Dog?

8. An operation for Muttley

9. Sorrow and Joy

10. Muttley, Puppies and Sunshine

11. Happy and Sad Times

12. Life after Dexter

13. Not Again, Muttley

14. Another Sad Loss

15. Happiness and Sorrow

16. Another Sad Loss

17. After The Operation

Next in the Series

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Author’s Note

From International Bestselling Author Brian L Porter

Copyright (C) 2022 Brian L. Porter

Layout design and Copyright (C) 2022 by Next Chapter

Published 2022 by Next Chapter

Edited by Graham (Fading Street Services)

Cover art by CoverMint

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the author’s permission.

Muttley

This book is dedicated to the memory of Dexter, Sasha, Sheba, Penny, and Dylan, all much-loved members of our pack of rescue dogs, who have all crossed the Rainbow Bridge in the last two years, taking their places in that special heaven reserved for our beloved canine friends. This last year, (2021-22) has been an especially difficult one for us, beginning with us almost losing Digby to a massive growth on his spleen from which he recovered after the surgical removal of his spleen, and towards the end of the year we have sadly had to say goodbye to our beautiful little Penny (The Railway Pup) at almost seventeen years of age, and just before Christmas, she was followed by our most senior dog, Dylan (The Flying Bedlington), also almost seventeen years old, our special blind and deaf Bedlington Terrier. Dylan had always been fit and healthy despite his disabilities, and his loss came suddenly and as a big shock to us all. Just as I came to the end of writing this book, we also lost our beautiful Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Sheba, at the age of fifteen. We will always cherish the memory of each and every one of the dogs whose stories have all been told in previous volumes of this series. They may be gone but they’ll definitely never be forgotten.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Muttley’s Tale, the eighth book in my Family of Rescue Dogs series. Muttley is now one of the elder statesmen among our family, with us having lost Penny, Dylan, and Sheba in quick succession towards the end of 2021 and in early 2022. Muttley was adopted by us as a puppy and has thus spent his whole life with us, apart from the few months he spent in the sanctuary where he and his siblings were dumped when they were tiny puppies. Unlike the majority of our dogs, Muttley is not what you might call particularly adventurous, though he is, and always has been a very boisterous dog, some might say quite typical of the breed. So, I hope you enjoy the story of our rather different Staffordshire Bull Terrier, who for some reason has managed to acquire the nickname Mr Schmutts, along his way through life.

1

STAFFY HUNT

It was May, in the year 2010, and Juliet and I, together with my two stepdaughters, Rebecca and Victoria, were spending some time at our local animal sanctuary. For some reason, Juliet had decided she’d like to find a staffy puppy. We had our Sheba of course, who we’d rescued from near-death a couple of years earlier, but Juliet thought bringing up a puppy would be quite rewarding so, there we were. We’d visited a few sanctuaries and rescue shelters since she’d first mentioned her idea, but none of them had any puppies. They had plenty of older dogs, but Juliet was determined it had to be a puppy!

This particular day, we arrived at the sanctuary and much to our surprise and delight, on inquiring, we were delighted to be informed that, yes, they did in fact have two staffy puppies available for adoption. Apparently, they’d recently received a litter of five unwanted puppies, three of which had already been adopted. They had one male and one female left, but they pointed out that they weren’t exactly new-born pups but were in fact approaching six months old. For some reason, the last two just hadn’t attracted any interest from families wanting an ‘older’ pup. They did however have a lady who was interested in adopting the male dog.

We decided to take a look at the two puppies, with Juliet feeling excited that at last, her search could be over. One of the sanctuary’s volunteers led us to the pen where the two puppies were located. When we looked at them, we saw two beautiful brindle Staffordshire bull terriers. Due to their age, they were obviously not little, tiny puppies, and I wondered if that might put Juliet off. Both dogs bounded up to see us and their tails wagged furiously. We did notice that their heads were shaped a little different to Sheba, our other Staffy, having a ‘squarer’ appearance, but not in any way off-putting. We spent a while with them, and Juliet decided she’d like to have the boy dog. The manageress of the sanctuary repeated to us that they had a disabled lady who used a disability scooter to get around, who’d expressed an interest in the boy, but as I now pointed out, a male staffy could be quite strong and would probably require a lot more exercise than the old lady would be able to give him, and when fully grown, could be highly likely to pull the poor old lady over, and much to my delight the manageress agreed.

“Does that mean we can have him?” Juliet asked, expectantly, and I nodded, and in a few minutes, we’d made arrangements to adopt the young brindle boy. The girls were obviously delighted and excited at the prospect of welcoming a new puppy to our home and could barely contain themselves. We would need a day or two to obtain all the usual accoutrements for bringing a new dog into the home, bed, collar and lead, toys etc, so we arranged to collect him two days later, much to the children’s disappointment.

“How about a name?” asked the manageress of the sanctuary.

“Oh, we haven’t thought about that,” Juliet replied.

“I know what we can call him,” I said, with a slight grin, following a moment’s inspiration.

“Go on, then, what?” Juliet asked.

My reply took her by surprise.

“Don’t ask me why, but somehow, he reminds me of Dick Dastardly’s dog in the old Whacky Races cartoons. Why don’t we call him Muttley?”

I fully expected Juliet to argue and come up with some ideas of her own, but she was in such a good mood, having at last found her staffy pup, that she instantly accepted my suggestion. With the pup now having a name, we were able to complete all the necessary adoption paperwork, and I arranged to pick up our new pup the following day, after the manageress of the sanctuary agreed to rush the paperwork through for us.

We left the sanctuary after calling to see our new puppy once more and set off into town to buy all the things he’d need when he arrived in our home.

Once we arrived in town, we spent the next hour or so visiting various pet stores, gradually obtaining everything we needed to make our new pup feel welcome once he arrived at his new home. Arriving home, we unpacked our purchases, trying to keep things like the new dog bed and toys hidden from our other dogs but I’m sure the rest of our dogs knew something was going on. Did they know what we were talking about when we sat discussing what we’d do once we brought the new puppy home?

For the rest of that day, our home was filled with an air of expectancy. The girls were full of questions that Juliet and I did our best to answer. Most importantly, they wanted to know how soon they could take Muttley for walks. We explained the need for him to have his vaccinations and be microchipped before he’d be allowed to go for walks in public, and the girls gradually calmed down, and we managed to get through the rest of the day, and our regular dog walks, without too much disruption.

We slept surprisingly well that night and were up bright and early the following morning. We stuck to our normal routine, bathroom, breakfast, and having got the girls off to school, Juliet and I walked the dogs, and then, after we’d enjoyed a coffee, (tea for Juliet), we readied ourselves for the fifteen-mile journey to the sanctuary. It was time to bring Muttley home.

On arrival at the sanctuary, we reported to the office, where we were greeted as always with smiles and words of welcome. Before they brought Muttley to us, we completed the last of the required paperwork and were given Muttley’s adoption certificate, and a tag to attach to his collar stating that he had been microchipped. These final stages of the adoption procedure probably took no more than ten minutes but seemed to last a lot longer to Juliet and me. Finally, I handed over the required adoption fee and that was it, Muttley was officially ours.

A minute later, the door to the office opened, and one of the staff walked in with Muttley on a rope lead. Seeing us, he immediately became excited. Did he remember us? The young lady could barely hold him back as he literally dragged her across the office in his excitement. He either did remember us, or he was generally excited to be out of his pen, where he’d lived almost all his life to that date. Before anyone could stop him, the mad pup had leapt up on to Juliet’s lap, his tail wagging furiously, and laughing, she made a big fuss of the little fella, who was clearly so excited as this was obviously not part of his normal routine. Juliet and I have always believed that rescue dogs seem to know when they’re being adopted and on their way to a new home. Muttley’s behaviour certainly did nothing to dispel that belief. We were sure he knew he was being adopted.

With all the paperwork completed, and with his nice new collar and lead attached, Muttley was officially ours, and within minutes we were in the car headed for home. Any worries we might have had about him being a good traveller were quickly dispelled. As I opened the tailgate, he literally leaped up into the back of the car, almost pulling Juliet, who was holding his lead, into the car with him. We both shared a laugh as he quickly had a good sniff around the large luggage compartment and then settled himself down as I closed the tailgate, and Juliet and I took our seats in the front. As I drove the car, Juliet spent most of the journey looking back to see how he was coping with the journey. Even I could see, through the rear-view mirror, that the little guy was standing up on his hind legs, resting his front paws on the rear window frame as he looked out at the scenery as we travelled along. He was alert and obviously taking an interest in everything that was going on around him. Before too long, we turned into our street, and I pulled up in front of our house. Without wasting any time, we took our new pup out of the car and with Juliet holding on to his lead, we made our way through the front gate and down the path towards the back of the house. It was time to introduce Muttley to his new doggie family.

Hello everyone

2

A NEW HOME

It’s worth mentioning at this point that the make-up of our doggie family was very different when we first adopted Muttley, to what it is today. For those who’ve read the other books in the series, it might come as a surprise to realise that at that time, we hadn’t yet adopted Sasha, Sheba and Dexter were just three years old and Dylan, Penny who recently crossed the Rainbow Bridge and Cassie were the only other members of the pack that are still part of today’s family. So, readers of previous books in the series, please don’t be surprised if you occasionally hear some names you might not recognise, such as Tilly, Sophie, Dinky, Misty, and others.

When we walked into the garden with Muttley in his nice new collar and lead, we allowed him a few minutes to walk around and familiarise himself with his new surroundings. He promptly trotted around, stopping and sniffing around, as dogs do, obviously sensing the presence of other dogs, as yet unseen, somewhere in the vicinity. He appeared quite happy and busily explored the garden taking time to come up to me or Juliet for a reassuring stroke and a fuss. We knew of course that the other dogs in the house would be aware that we were home and could hear us talking to a strange dog who they sensed was on the premises, or rather, on their territory.

After giving our new puppy about ten minutes to explore the garden, Juliet went into the house and allowed our other dogs, two at a time, to come out and meet their new packmate. We were extremely happy, when a few minutes later, all our dogs were happily interacting with the puppy, who seemed a little overwhelmed at being virtually surrounded by what for him would seem a large pack of dogs. We knew of course that Muttley had spent the early months of his life with just his litter mates for company, and as we’d been told at the sanctuary, had been left with just his one sister for the last two months before we’d adopted him. We made sure that our other dogs weren’t allowed to overwhelm him by restricting the time we allowed them to spend with him in the garden, until he seemed comfortable in their presence, and the time came to allow him into the house for the first time.

We opened the back door and Muttley eagerly bounded into the house. He spent about five minutes zooming around the kitchen, excitedly exploring the strange new place he’d discovered. He sniffed at everything in sight, made lots of little snuffling noises and when we allowed the other dogs to come in and join him, we couldn’t help smiling as he and the rest of our dogs continued getting to know one another. Before long, he began to settle down and Juliet and I were so pleased when he decided to try out one of the beds that were situated around the kitchen

“Good boy, Muttley,” I said as he sat there, looking at me as if he was seeking assurance that he had permission to sit in the bed. His tail began wagging and the two of us were really happy that he’d taken that important first step. We both desperately wanted our new little pup to feel safe and secure in his new home.

Muttley’s first day passed quickly with our new puppy appearing to settle in quite easily, with no problems caused by the rest of our doggie family, who all appeared to accept him so easily. With him being a bit older than the average puppy when first introduced to a new home, we perhaps should have expected one or two problems and sure enough, as the day progressed, we did find a couple of wees in the kitchen. Most puppies are adopted at an earlier age and by the time they reach Muttley’s age, are probably already house-trained. Juliet and I quickly realised that our new little boy was somewhat backward in that regard, though to his credit, he never did a poo in the house.

“He’s going to need a bit of extra patience from us,” Juliet declared, and she was absolutely correct. It took quite a few weeks to train Muttley to go outside to do what he needed to do, but eventually, he got the message. Of course, we couldn’t actually take him out in public at first, as he wasn’t fully vaccinated. The sanctuary had given him his first injections before he left them, but we had to make sure he received his second vaccinations a fortnight after he arrived in our home. I made the appointment with our vet the day after we brought him home, so we had two weeks to get him used to living in a real home after all those months of life in the sanctuary.

We were fortunate that the weather at the time was mostly warm and sunny, so Muttley had plenty of time to interact with the rest of the dogs in the garden, where he loved soaking up the sunshine. We always placed a few dog beds in the garden for the dogs to use during the day and Muttley would happily choose whichever bed seemed to be getting the most of the sun and make it his own.

Puppy Muttley

Something we noticed in those early days which would lead to some problems in the coming months was that Muttley had a habit of chewing his bed. Of course, we knew from experience that puppies love to chew, and we had of course bought him a good selection of chew toys, which we thought would keep him occupied. For now, we put this chewing habit down to normal puppy behaviour. As time passed, we’d soon learn otherwise. For now, we allowed our new family member to settle in, explore his new home, and learn to get along with his new doggie family. Even in those early days it was clear to us that Muttley seemed to be getting along with one dog more than the others.

Sleepy Muttley

At the time, our Staffy/Labrador crossbreed, Dexter, was about two years old and he immediately seemed to go out of his way to make friends with the new puppy. This was unusual, as Dexter, despite being the friendliest of dogs with everyone, both human and canine, had never showed any particular affinity with any one dog within the family. Perhaps he felt the new puppy needed a special friend. Whatever the reason, we soon realised that Dexter was making a special effort to be welcoming to Muttley and it became quite a common occurrence to find the two of them cuddled up together in one of the dog beds, or playing together in the garden, an even more unusual sight as Dexter was usually happiest playing with his favourite toy or having games of tug, with me or Juliet, not with the other dogs! This was the beginning of a doggie friendship that lasted throughout Dexter’s life until we sadly lost him after a lengthy illness, at the age of twelve.