TILLYS BURROWS

© K Gardner - tillysburrows 2009 all rights reserved  

Lassie

Lassie was a large brindle Whippet that came to our family when i lived at home with my parents.

She was a sweet, gentle natured dog, and loved us all as young children. We do not really know her circumstances, but was told she was found abandoned in a shed.

This understanding could be the reason she ran  litterally around the walls of he house when my parents first had her.

She use to follow us children around the garden and walk with us to infant school and down to our Grand parents at the weekend.

She was a great help to my mum as she was ill with Agoraphobia, and Lassie helped her get out of the house to take her for walks.

Lassie died at the ripe old age of about 18 years old, and is still missed dearly.

Toby

Toby was a rescue Lurcher from a foster home, in Blackpool. The home was founded through the whippet/ geryhound rescue and fostered the breed until they went to permenant new homes.

His background is not all clear but we believe that he was dumped at aroad side somewhere on a evening as he had a fear of car headlights.

I remember when mum bought him home what a state he was in. A year old dog that was very thin still and his coat was dull, due to his bad start in life. As soon as he walked through the door he came straight up to me and my sister and ate half a bowl of rice pudding he saw sitting on the floor. He settled down around us almost immediately as he was very stressed with the journey.

He had a big fear of being left for a long time and would howl the house down and mess on the carpet. Paper and bin rubbish would be all over the floor when wwe returned home, but with a bit of training he did settle. The bin had to always be put out side though as he would always raid it as this was mentally set in him from a young age, to hunt or starve.

As time went on he gained weight, started to play games and come to us when he was called. He loved his kong toy and always bought the empty toy back to us after he had dug out all the treats inside it.

He use to come up and sleep on the bed with me on a weekend night when my parents went out, his head on the pillow and feet spread out so that i was nearly on the floor.

 ©KayGardner2009.Toby on my bed asleep

When we went on holiday and i was out in the awning he would try and get onto my collapsable bed and take my duvet. He loved going on holiday in the caravan and playing on the beach with the other dogs.

©KayGardner2009 Toby on Holiday

He loved to play in the garden with us and on the field with Pip his doggy friend, but after a while we had to watch out for the cats around the field and comming along the bottom of the garden as our next door neighbours bought a farm cat that was very feral ( knowing that we had Toby) and was leaping out from under the cars and attacking him with tooth and claw. It was totally nuts and went for every dog in the street. This turned Toby against cats.

Eventually after stupidity from the feral cats owners, the cat had just the day before given birth to kittens and was let out, whilst still exhausted, to wander into our back garden. This gave Toby the advantage to catch up with the cat causing it to loose its life, after my attempts to save it.  

Toby did gain injuries through his charging up the garden and once ran into a spade which caused him occasional lameness through out the rest of his life, although the vet said he hadn't broken anything after various visits and xrays.

Toby was given a bad name for a while by the next door neighbours, who tried to blame him, for their behaviour, but soon it was all in the past and we continued to keep Toby under control and muzzled. A lot of people said poor Toby and would fuss him in the street. He would greet everyone with a deep howl, even the children in the area loved him.

As he reach middle age his lameness suddenly worsened and being concerned for his health and sudden muscle deterioration, he was taken back to the vets for tests. It was confirmed he had bone cancer, possibly bought on through the bang he had when he was younger, who knows. and at the age of 8 we decide to let him go.

We got people comming up to us in the street, even children asking us wheres Toby? The children were extremely unhappy to hear he had died, but the good thing was he was remembered for his good nature towards adults and children alike.

 © K Gardner - tillysburrows 2009 all rights reserved  Toby&mum