The dogs in our lives part 2!

Then came Leo! Formerly Noel!

The decision to have another dog was made.  None of us could bear walking into an empty house.  This time though we thought we would give a loving home to a dog who had had a rough start to his/her life.

The search began!  Not an easy task I have to say, the girls and I wanted to give a home to all the pleading eyes and wagging tails.  A hardening of the heart was necessary!

We trawled around the re-homing centres ending up at Last Chance Animal Centre in Edenbridge - what a fantastic place it is, the staff are so dedicated to their task.

After walking round the centre many times and feeling slightly despondent at not ‘getting the feeling’ that one particular dog would be right to join our family group, we decided to make our way home, we walked one last time past a row of kennels – I looked back down the slope to a kennel and run right at the bottom and saw a dog sitting tight against the wire in the corner looking at us, not moving or making a sound, just looking, a thought popped into my head ‘he’s the one’ then came the flurry of procedures, meeting and greeting, house checks, within two weeks Leo came home. 

We knew Leo had a number of issues , not least of all his need to be pack leader, he would use his strength and mouth to try to achieve this, he never broke the skin, but we all received bruises during his training process, this training started on day one.

Leo realised very quickly that he was down in the pecking order and once he cottoned onto who the pack leader was he settled in beautifully.

It was important to understand him, all we knew of his early life was that he was dumped on the roadside in Wales, how long he had been out on the roads or what he endured no-one knew, he had been re-homed but was returned to the centre quite quickly, I felt that if he hadn’t come to us, he would have spent longer at the centre than would have been good for him.

He is such a complex character, such a complex mix of breeds, staffy, hound, collie and more, as the years progressed the traits started to show.  He is a very powerful dog but also an incredible softy and so loving.  It was evident the carpet would not stay long! with some dogs carpet is not an ideal medium!!!  Certainly not with Leo!!  So my floor tiling skills came to fruition, I have tackled many a decorating task but never floor tiling!  I have to say I did a very good job.

With all members of our family mountains would be moved to ensure their health and happiness.  Leo is no exception!!

In part 3 I will tell you all about Leo’s friends.  Have a great time until then.

Julie