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Teddy came to us in August of 1997.
He had a wonderful foster home, but, luckily for us, his foster mum, who
would have loved to keep him, was pregnant and felt she couldn’t care for both a new
baby and a new dog.
Despite years of mistreatment, Teddy loved people – once,
when his foster home was burglarized, he left with the robbers and was later found several
blocks away, happily sitting outside a pool hall! When
we took him for walks in the woods on the edge of the golf course by our home, he would
often develop selective deafness – completely ignoring our calls, and trotting
happily up to golfers to say “I’m so cute.
Pat me, pat me”. Fortunately,
he was so cute, and, for the most part the golfers were happy to comply!
He also really liked other dogs, and had a number of
friendships with the other canine users of the golf course.
When he was in the garden and a friend went by, they’d talk through the
fence; when he was out for a walk, he’d check out the houses we passed to see who was
home; and when everyone was out on the golf course they’d meet and he’d share
the bikkies Mummy had in her pocket.
Teddy had a number of medical problems which were carefully
monitored and tended by his wonderful vet, Dr Chris Booth; in spite of them, His Lordship
(as Chris called him) was a very happy fellow. One
of his problems was a thickening of the vocal cords, which sometimes made his breathing a
bit raspy. Unfortunately, with the hot summer
we just had, the problem became critical, and Tedders needed emergency surgery to help him
breathe. The surgery was a success, but one
of his other problems was a bad heart, which just wasn’t able to take the strain. He died a few days later.
Teddy was a joy in our home, and we miss him dreadfully. Thank you, AAS, for giving us the opportunity to
love him.
Thank you Daphne for giving Teddy the home he so
deserved and for wiping out seven years of neglect and abuse. The picture of Teddy
is astonishing to anyone who saw him on the end of his chain that was his life for seven
years (probably the reason his vocal chords thickened). His coat is beautiful, but
for many years it was a thick, impenetrable, dirty, painful mat all over his body right
down to his skin and he stank from not being able to keep himself clean. Teddy's
condition and his lonely, miserable life were sickening to see and some kind angel came
one night and took him away....to paradise. |
