Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Have dog, will move to France


As promised, I decided to start this blog to support my book, Sell the Pig. Those of you have read it may like to see photos of the main characters, to put faces to names.  And those who have not yet read it might enjoy reading a few excerpts to see if you might like to.

A very brief recap, it's about the, some would say, bizarre decision for my rather unusual family to up sticks and move to France together. Unusual in that the family consisted of Mother, aged 89, and pleasantly barmy with vascular dementia, Brother, a manic-depressive alcoholic with a double decker bus as a plaything, Meic, my larger than life border collie, and me, a decidedly dotty middle-aged freelance copywriter.

For those of you interested in dogs, here's a bit more about Meic.  For those not interested in dogs, my usual advice - look away now.

"I hadn't exactly intended to get Meic. When I'd left my riding centre in Wales, in the early 90s, to move to Dorset, I had a small black collie cross named Mady. She came from a rescue centre, where she was called Mandy, but she was so definitely not a Mandy, I just dropped the N and she became Mady."
Mady

"She was very happy as an only dog. She was a very easy and biddable dog, though inclined to be a little bit bossy with other dogs. She did on one occasion up-end my friend's lovely Staffie, Camilla, whilst giving away a huge amount of weight in the contest. That's how tough and determined she was."

"I wasn't in the market for another dog. There was no danger at all of my wanting one when Anna-Lou showed me the remaining two puppies. But then I saw Meic. Or Mott, as he was called at that time. And something cracked. To Mady's intense disgust, she found herself sharing the back of the car on the way home with a squeaking, peeing, puking puppy who had not had much experience of car travel."

Meic, aged 5 months

"I'm sure there are those amongst you, if you've read thus far, who will be thinking why not just put him to sleep and move and get a new dog once installed in France? Trouble is, I'm a bit of a softie with my dogs and always apply the Toy Rule – as long as a dog is still quite happy to play with a favourite toy, there's too much life there to extinguish, in my humble opinion."

Meic, demonstrating the Squeaky Toy Rule

So there you have a couple of doggy faces to put to names.  The rest is up to you, dear reader.  Tell me what you would like to see photos of and I shall do my best to post them here for you.

8 comments:

  1. Do you have pics of the crisp packet strewn grottage?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I do indeed have the before and afters though sadly not of the actual crisp packets. That's a good suggestion, I will post them. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Whereabouts in Wales was your riding centre? Just being nosy.. mainly cos I went to a riding school in Wales in the early 90s...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mine was at Brechfa, halfway between Carmarthen and Lampeter. I left there in 1992.

      Delete
  4. Mine was at Cribyn I think - not a million miles away. Brilliant riding around that part of Wales. Coincidentally I was riding there in early 1992, and I vaguely remember the owners moving to Dorset. Diana and another lady... the instructor used to come & pick us up from Uni (Lampeter) in her mini. I've not been riding for years, really must get round to having a lesson...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes, I know it, think I knew that couple vaguely, too. Lovely part of Wales. If you want to go back to Wales have friends with a place in the Preseli Hills, where my remaining horse is.

    ReplyDelete
  6. We've got friends just outside Llanybydder and in Solva, both with horses :) Just need to get round to going!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aahh, Llanybydder, went every month to the West Wales horse sales there to buy and sell. Was late going one month as delayed by a goat having twins who were then named Lanny and Buther ;)

      Delete