I admit that I brought the problem entirely on myself – for years I had been regaling my daughter about the loveable antics of the Pyrenean Mountain dog that my family had owned when I was a teenager, so I shouldn’t have been remotely surprised that she begged to have a dog as she got older.
Two things coincided to support her arguments – she was due to go to university in a couple of years and out came the line: “So Mum, it would be perfect for you to have a dog to look after once I’m no longer living at home.” Well, I should have seen that one coming!
Secondly, we had moved to a house in a rural area with a very large garden, ideal for a full-grown Pyrenean (an adult Pyrenean Mountain dog can reach a height of 80 centimetres).
Eventually I succumbed like many beleaguered parents before me and started planning on finding a suitable puppy to give to my daughter as a Christmas present. Pyrenean puppies are amongst the cutest creatures on this earth – pure white, fluffy, with dark eyes – “Just like a baby polar bear”, as so many besotted owners have exclaimed. But puppies grow …and grow…. and it’s desperately sad that too many owners find that they can no longer cope with a dog the size of a small pony. Dog rescue organisations are only too familiar with fully-grown Pyreneans ending up on their doorsteps.
How much? – Time for Plan B
Having almost suffered a heart attack when I researched the price of puppies, I put Plan B into operation: find a rescue dog– so much more rewarding to offer a fresh start to a dog abandoned by its original owners that was looking for a new forever home.
I scoured the internet and found the nearest possible candidate was a year-old bitch who had been taken in by the Blue Cross Rehoming Centre, in Southampton. Naively, I imagined that all we would have to do would be to ring up and tell them that we would like to adopt her and she would be ours. How wrong I was.
Quite rightly, we were put through the third degree. Was there space enough in the house for her? How large is the garden? Is it safely enclosed? How much experience did we have of owning large dogs? Would she be alone in the house for long periods of time? Did we realise that we would have to come down to Southampton for two ‘acquaintanceship’ visits, and that our home would be inspected before we were allowed to adopt her to make sure that it was suitable?
Having passed all tests with flying colours and taken our potential adoptee for two walks from the rehoming centre, we were eventually allowed to leave with her. Our newly acquired Pyrenean had been given the entirely inappropriate name of Nanook (presumably after ‘Nanook of the North’), but we were stuck with it, and apart from that minor irritation we were really excited and really happy as we drove to Southampton to collect her and bring her back to her new home.
The joy of adoption gives way to unforeseen trials
Perhaps if we had known the challenges that we would face over the next few months we would never have gone ahead with the adoption. Nanook, who had seemed so pleased to accompany us on our trial walks, her feathery tail waving in the wind, was withdrawn and aloof once we got her home. We had been told that her previous family had young children who she had adored – was she missing them? Perhaps she was traumatised by being moved from one location to another, losing all the people and places familiar to her?
A few days after she moved in she developed digestive problems and we fretted over whether this was due to anxiety or just a normal response to a change of surroundings and diet. Whatever the cause, the result was dramatic and awful. We would come downstairs in the morning to apocalyptic floods of diarrhoea spread across the kitchen and living room floors and have to spend much of the rest of the day cleaning up and fumigating the house.
More adventurous mountain wolf than docile pet
I had also forgotten, after many years of not owning a Pyrenean, that their natural habitat is the mountains, not suburban gardens. Bred as guard dogs, they are raised from puppyhood with their ‘own’ flock of sheep in the High Pyrenees and away from most human contact. They consider themselves the ‘herd leaders’ and will readily attack wolves or anything else that they perceive as a threat to the sheep. The nomads of the canine world, they are used to wandering freely across a mountainous landscape. Which doesn’t, of course, fit well with a rural Sussex environment of fields and hedges and country lanes. Expert at breaking out of the garden, Nanook would go on long expeditions, twice having to be brought back by the police.
Affection and loyalty win the day – with a word of caution
If all this sounds rather nightmarish, it was. And yet we would not have changed the experience for the world. For very gradually Nanook developed into the dog of a lifetime – affectionate, companionable, with a wonderful sense of humour. Stubborn, granted – she would lie down in the middle of a road and refuse to budge if she was bored with a walk. Protective of her flock – of course. The local postman embargoed deliveries to us after she had raced alongside his van threatening to tear him to pieces once too often.
The moral of the story is – don’t ever impulse buy a puppy for Christmas, and think very, very carefully before taking on a rescue dog. That said, you might just find your dog of a lifetime too. Even if it does think that you are a sheep.
Rescue charities need your support – January and February are their busiest times of the year as unwanted Christmas pets are brought in. Some suggestions for organisations to donate to:
Sussex : https://www.raystede.org/
Nationally : https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/
https://www.bluecross.org.uk/rehome/dog
