Dog Squad Blog – Daddy’s Girl Snoopy

This week Jill Stavrou-Shaw tells us about life in Cyprus with Snoopy.

Snoopy was a Daddy’s girl, she never forgot the man who stopped his car and rescued her. She was the only puppy left alive from a litter of 3 who were abandoned by the side of the road in Cyprus. She was only weeks old, far too young to be taken from her mother, and even the vet didn’t expect her to survive. However, with his advice and several weeks of bottle feeding at home this little white puppy, who looked more like a rat, slowly started to turn into a bundle of curly white fur.

She was a Cyprus poodle apparently? To her newly adopted familyshe became “Snoopy”.

Snoopy’s new human Dad always felt completely responsible for her and never having had a dog before, and Snoopy never having had a human either, they made things up as they went along. Life, work, family and Snoopy all now had to be juggled. Snoopy’s human Mum worked away a lot, so that left lots of Dad and dog time; the bond between them grew and they became inseparable. The best part of each day for Snoopy was when her human Dad came home from work. She would sit on top of the sofa looking out of the window. Her joy at seeing him erupted into this yapping, crying, bouncing bundle of flying fur who couldn’t wait to be scooped up into his arms and kissed and cuddled.

Snoopy’s human Dad thought her delight to see him was just about being fed and walked and having someone home again for company but for Snoopy it was so much more, this was the human who had saved her. They both were beginning to learn what unconditional love was really all about.

Snoopy loved to sun bath, crazy really for a dog with so much fur? She would happily snooze in the sun for hours; her short bursts of activity were all saved for her Dad. Walks to the park were tolerated as cuddling at home was far preferable. Drives in the car were much better but sitting in the basket on her Dad’s little motorbike and having a drive around was simply amazing. This special treat was usually saved for the annual trip to the vet, the delight of this mode of travel soon made her forget about the horrible but necessary jabs and potions a dog had to endure to stay well.

This blissful life in the sun was to change when Snoopy’s human Mum and Dad had to go to England for a while, her humans were far more anxious about her travelling on a plane than she was. The suitcases, boxes and crates that had started to fill the house were confusing, but having tried to sleep in them all, Snoopy much preferred the suitcase full of her Dad’s clothes. If her pack were on the move then of course she would be going with them, she probably hoped the motorbike would be the chosen form of travel?

Snoopy was eventually temped from the suitcase to a crate with regular tiny treats of chocolate. Nothing else would work. A lovely old jumper smelling of her Dad was put in there for her to snuggle up to, she knew he was too big to fit in too, but she would have much preferred that. Seeing Snoopy sitting in her crate, being lifted by a folk lift truck at the airport to be taken to the plane was almost too much for her humans to bear. Thank goodness we were all on the same flight!

On landing at Manchester airport in the grey and rainy weather Snoopy’s humans were feeling a terrible mixture of emotions, their unspoken anxiety made even worse when suitcases started being taken from the plane on a conveyer belt, surely Snoopy would have her own fork lift truck here too?

Snoopy had now been away from her humans for hours, her human Dad’s need to be reunited with her was now exactly the same as her wait for him to come home from work every day. This was going to be emotional!

The drive to collect Snoopy from the cargo part of the airport seemed so wrong – she wasn’t cargo, she was family. We were mildly reassured by the “Flying Vets for Pets” signs. But we almost missed them as they were totally obscured by the driving rain that was now lashing the car. Maybe she would forgive us for not bringing the motorbike with the basket after all?

We finally found “arrivals for animals” and were met by a lovely vet who was here to hand over our precious cargo. She had clearly seen the anxious faces of so many humans who had come to collect their pets, she greeted us with a welcoming “You must be Snoopy Stavrou-Shaw’s” Mum and Dad?”.

We were slightly surprised at the formality of using our family name for the dog? but of course that’s who she was, Snoopy Stavrou-Shaw. Our voices confirming we were just that, were soon drowned out by that familiar happy, yapping and barking that greeted us every evening in Cyprus.

A delighted flying bundle of fur came running towards us. For the first time Snoopy seemed torn as to who to greet first, then we were both jumped on by the happiest overwhelmed Cyprus poodle.

Snoopy Stavrou-Shaw had arrived safely in England, the formality of her new extended name rather suited her, so we kept it. She was back with her pack now and looked rather smug as she sat on her human Daddy’s lap as we drove to our new home.

Thanks for sharing Snoopy’s story Jill.

Ifyou enjoy dog stories and Cyprus, you may like my Island Dog Squad Series. http://smarturl.it/ru5uye