Just over two years ago Sally came into our lives.  She has featured in Going Local from the very first edition.  Readers have read about the trials and traumas we have encountered over the last two and a bit years.

We have had bean bags destroyed, cushions ripped to shreds, koi fish in her mouth and phantom pregnancies.  We have had to pay house sitters to look after her whilst we went away and attended dog training classes which were very eventful.  Her second Christmas was a story in itself, she got presents from everyone in the family, goodness knows what this Christmas will bring.  She has been taught tricks which including winking (yes a dog that winks) along with the normal tricks a dog can do. 

What sort of dog is this you might wonder - a very amusing entertaining dog.  If you want to follow the adventures of Sally email enquiries@goinglocalonline.co.uk for your free copy of Going Local, as a taster below are a couple of articles which have featured in the magazine over the last two years.

Sally aged 14 and a half months

We arranged for a friends daughter to come and house sit and look after Sally whilst we were away.  Sally was extremely down in the dumps when we left, cuddling the imaginary pups in her basket and whilst on holiday we were constantly wondering how she was behaving.  We needn’t have worried, by all accounts Sally was treated like a princess and had a ball !!  She was taken for a walk every morning and evening by the house sitter, she was also taken for a walk every day by a family member, she must have thought all her birthdays had come at once with all these walks.

One day the house sitter was working longer hours and she was worried that Sally would be left for too long so she was treated to a day at the pub.  She was taken to my friends pub, they have a large enclosed garden at the rear and she was left to run to her hearts content.  When my friend had to work in the pub she put Sally in the living quarters but she kept whining at the door so ended up behind the bar.  She then progressed to the lounge of the pub where everyone made a fuss of her, fed her crisps and snacks and she probably got quite a taste for alcohol.

About halfway through the holiday I received a text message from my sister in law along with a picture, the picture showed the conservatory floor covered in stuffing, the message read “you used to have a three seater settee, you now have a two seater and a hole”.  I nearly had a fit, I thought Sally had chewed a great bit hole in the settee.  A later text followed saying “only kidding it was a cushion”.  Great relief on my part I can tell you, I then started to panic that Sally had started destroying my newly fitted kitchen so it was frantic phone calls to the house sitter to make sure all was in order.  Everything was fine, Sally must just have had a boring day.  Sally did cry every night whilst we were away but the imaginary pups seemed to take a back seat with all the attention she was getting, in fact after the first week of us being gone, the toys disappeared back into the garden.

When we returned home it was the early hours of the morning, we put our key in the door and a sheepish looking Sally appeared.  It was quite funny to see, you could tell by her face she was thinking “is it them or not”.  Recognition finally dawned and she went absolutely loopy, racing around the conservatory, catapulting off the settee, flying around the garden like a lunatic.  Obviously the old Sally was back.  For now the imaginary pups have gone and I am hoping that the next time she is on heat we don’t have the same performance.

Last year in the run up to Xmas my daughter kept buying Sally presents, every time she came home from shopping we had to shut the dog out of the room whilst she showed us the present so as Sally didn’t see it before Xmas!!.  I told my daughter to wrap Sallys presents in cheap wrapping paper but oh no the dog had to have the same expensive paper as everyone else.  Even though I kept saying “she’s only a dog” it fell on deaf ears.

In the end Sally got as many presents as the children, presents came from us, the children, aunts, uncles and grandparents.  Sallys presents had to be placed under the tree with everyone else, the children wanted Sally to be allowed in the front room to open her presents with everyone else but I put my foot down and said “no”.  After we had opened our presents we all went into the conservatory and watched Sally open hers.  I kept thinking to myself “I can’t believe this we are sat here watching a dog open her Xmas presents”. 

So what did Sally get - she had two Xmas stockings full of treats along with a squeaky Xmas cracker toy, a ball and a boot, she had a box of dog chews in the shape of candy canes, a box of dog treats all in the shape of wrapped Xmas presents, a diamante crown for her collar with the name Princess on it, a rubber ring that squeaked, a stuffed reindeer, a mat to go under her bowl, a cap with a visor on it which also said Princess and a long rope thing with a ball on each end of it.  Not much for a dog!!  Find out what happened to the presents and of course this years events at Xmas in the next issue.

 Sally aged 24 and a half months

Well things have been a bit quiet on the Sally front this past couple of months.  The door opening is still a big problem.  Sally usually lays on the top of the settee looking out of the window, we have quite a long drive and our postbox is outside the main gates on the wall and obviously she barks when anyone passes the gates.  If anyone is delivering something for the letterbox they see Sally laid on the settee and that the gate is shut so are not concerned about her barking, what they don’t realise is that she can open door.  As soon as they get to the letterbox she bounds to the door,  opens it, flies down the drive and whoever is at the letterbox ends up running for their lives because she has taken them unawares and they think she can get at them.  Quite funny you might think, but not really, I am starting to stand in front of the door when she jumps off the settee and say NO!, It does stop her in her tracks but she is not very impressed with my actions.

Sally did receive a standing ovation a while ago.  My daughter took her out for a walk and as you all know she has taught her to jump on walls and walk on them.  They were walking past the Vic pub in Outwood, Sally jumped on the wall and when she came to a small pillar jumped over it and carried on walking on the wall.  It was quite a nice day and a few people were sat outside having a drink, Sally got a cheer and a clap from the captive audience.  The latest trick is a crisp placed in between her claws, she leaves it there until you say ‘Good Girl’ and then lifts up her paw and eats the crisp, - utterly and totally mad.

We found a frog in the pond last month, oh my goodness I thought, this isn’t going to last long if Sally sees it.  I have to confess the frog was there one day and then gone the next, maybe it caught sight of Sally and decided it should find a friendlier habitat to live in. She has started being a real monkey where food is concerned (something she never used to do but I think the children giving her titbits has encouraged her).  I cannot leave a plate of food near the edge in the kitchen because as soon as your back is turned the food is gone.  One of the children left a bag of wrapped sweets on the chair, ten minutes later they were gone, Sally nowhere near the sweets, laid in her basket (pretending I am sure) to be asleep but with a very contented look on her face.  Needless to say the children don’t leave sweets laying around anymore.

I know I am digressing a bit here and this is supposed to be about Sally but it is Pet Dairy so I think I can get away with telling you the tale of the Lizards.  My son asked for a lizard for his birthday and after some discussion we agreed.  At first the lizard was in its vivarium in the conservatory, bad move, Sally spent all day looking at it, moving up close to the glass front, I was sure she was going to tip the thing over and break the glass so the lizard was moved.

After a couple of weeks we decided the lizard was lonely, so went back to the pet shop to see about getting another to keep it company.  We were assured that it wouldn’t be a problem, they might be a bit hostile at first but would get used to each other.  This turned out to be the understatement of the year.  The first lizard went mad and bit the end of the second lizards tail completely off (fortunately they do grow again).  The second lizard was going frantic trying to get out of the viz, the first lizard wouldn’t let it lay under the log or on the heat mat, wouldn’t let it eat or anything.  We rang the pet shop and we were told they were just trying to mate and when they mate they get a bit nasty, don’t worry they will settle down.

A couple of days later we came home to find THREE EGGS in the viz “Oh no” I thought, this is all we need another three lizards.  Apparently lizard eggs are very hard to incubate and they didn’t survive but it didn’t help the mood of the first lizard, it went way over the top and bit part of the foot off the second lizard.  After some discussion it was decided that one lizard had to go before they killed each other, fortunately a friend of ours had a friend who kept lizards so my son had to choose which one to part with.  This was he thought a hard decision but eventually he decided to keep the injured lizard and off the other one went.  Thank goodness none of this happened in front of Sally or I am sure she would have wanted to join in.