Spike

Animal Rescue Centre Heaven’s Gate


They call me Spike, but l think l had a different name some time ago, but most of the past l forgot when the doctor at the surgery stuck a needle into my bum and made me very drowsy and sleepy. When l woke up, still drowsy and rather sick, l was placed in a bed at the surgery’s kennels.

Later the lady l met some days ago at a large house picked me up, put me in her car and drove me back to the house, which seems to be called Heaven’s Gate. What a name for an Animal Rescue Centre! l was dropped off in a kennel with a female puppy. She looked like a cross between a sheepdog and a collie. She is very chatty and extremely hungry. Our bowl is always empty before l even have a chance to get there. Walking can take quite a while for me because, as l gathered, I had a major operation on my injured right back leg. The injury was long before l was left at Heaven’s Gate, and l can remember now all the pain and suffering l had before the operation. Now it is still painful but l can cope with it. The leg gets better and better every day.

OK, l am limping and they have partially shaved off my coat – but never mind. The people here are very kind to me and look after me.

l feel like I’m in heaven, not at the gate though!

The humans are talking to each other about how sweet I am and that it would not take a long time to find me a new family. I have a spiky black coat with some white hairs in between. It looks rather like I am an old dog who has grown a grey coat over the years, with a white blessing on my chest. But a look in my face with my sparkling pitch black eyes can tell everyone I am young and full of myself. I am so slim that I could fly through the air, if only the full set of my legs would carry me. I have big ears, one of which, most of the time, stands up in expectation of something happening and me joining in, the other stands up too, but the end of it flops forward a bit, telling everyone ‘I am a cheeky little bugger’. If someone talks to me I lay my head a little bit sideways with one ear up and the other halfway up, which gives me the expression of being very attentive. Which of course I am! Humans are taken by my looks, honestly.

And I am intelligent, I know exactly what is going on. That’s why I can tell you everything as frankly as I do.

There is talk that Heaven’s Gate is opening to the public next weekend and all inhabitants and carers are wound up at the prospect of lots of visitors. I am placed with the gobbling female into a different kennel at the main walk through the Centre. The carers were chatting to me and reckon it wouldn’t take long to get me a new home, I am so sweet and outgoing, still a puppy and the leg will heal in time.

So that’s what it is all about, they want to get rid of us and l just got happy with my new environment.

During all the excitement, cleaning up and so on, we had two visitors who obviously are a couple belonging together looking for a dog. They passed by, looked at me and said to each other: ‘That’s the one! How sweet and young, a spiky coat and those expressions on his face. He doesn’t bark and has that cheeky left ear always implying he understands what is going on. He puts it upwards most of the time while the other ear is hanging down normally and only stands up when he is excited!’

I only had started to limp up to the fence, and they had fallen in love with me. During their conversation I gathered that the female human is called Sabine and the male human is called Neil. But what is going on! Sabine said: ‘Let us have a look at the others anyway!’ How can she do this? She likes me and l like her, and they both still walk away from me! After a while they returned, gave me a little pat, stroked me and talked to me sweetly, and guess what:

Walked away again, leaving me alone completely!

Later, one of the carers told me I was chosen to be taken to their home for a new life, but had to stay in the kennels for the public day. In the meantime the kennels would check up on my new family home, making sure that Sabine and her family will take care of me properly so that l can have a happy life after it had started in quite a mess.

The open day was soon and Heaven’s Gate had lots of visitors, including my new parents, who brought an old sock and an old shoe for me. It smelled fabulous, and l spent the whole day waving it around, sniffing at it and taking care that the gobbling sheepdog puppy could not get a paw on it.




My new home


Some days later l was picked up by Sabine and an elderly lady called Nan. When Nan and Sabine picked me up on a Tuesday, Sabine’s car was choking when we drove through the levels of Somerset. They had four days of continuous rain there. I nearly thought we all had to swim to my new home because Sabine’s old car seemed to cough and struggle a lot. Once we even had to stop at the side and wait until the water had drained off the engine. The ladies talked about the Somerset levels and that they are beneath the sea level. That is the reason why the area gets flooded a lot when it rains. I hope that this doesn’t happen too often, otherwise I will need a life jacket and a new navigation system because I can’t smell anything in the water and will be scared I won’t find home again. I was getting so excited that I was violently sick and had to look out for a free space on the back seat to place my little bum on.

When we finally arrived, Nan went to a house nearby and Sabine and I entered my new home. It had a lot of different smells.
I had to have a look in every corner of the house. Later I started christening the hall up and down, the living room and another room, which was master Guy’s room. Master Guy is ten and still on holiday in Canada; he will return in two weeks’ time I was told. I wonder what a companion he will be, and at the same time I look forward to meeting him. Later, when I did calm down, I fell asleep without realising it. When I woke up, I found myself laying on the living room carpet in front of the fire. It was lovely, cosy and warm. Sabine was drinking a cup of tea and I was starting to feel at home. The peace didn’t last for long.




Frizzi and Tigger


It made a bang at the kitchen door and what was called a cat flap opened in a storm. Frizzi jumped in, heading for his favoured seat on the living room settee by the window. In his hurry, he did not see me stretched out on the floor. I had a proper look at him first, he is a slinky ginger cat with light brown eyes. His nickname is ‘Frizzi the hunter’ because he is out and about all the time, hunting mice, rats, bunnies, leaves other cats and anything that seems to move. The bad news is that he gets hunted as well and ends up being the home to a horde of fleas. Therefore, he is the one who regularly has to have a bath, whether he likes it or not. Before I made the final decision on whether l was going to like him, I had to have a sniff at him, preferably at his bottom. He did not appreciate this sort of ‘doggy greeting’ and swiped his claws across my nose. Thanks a lot, that’s what l call a good start to a friendship.

Later on l thought l was dreaming, or at least being cross-eyed. The same cat came in again but in a much calmer fashion. It was heading for the same settee where Frizzi already had taken his place. Only then did I realise that there were two cats.

The second one did not take any notice of me and gave me a strong hint that he didn’t want to be talked to. I called him Majesty until I was told his name was Tigger. I now know he is the senior of us bunch. Born in Leeds, moved to Berlin and Stuttgart in Germany, then to Wales, and later to Somerset in England. In Stuttgart he met little Frizzi, who was born on a farmyard near a busy road. Tigger told me Frizzi was only four weeks old when he tried to cross the busy road running in front of the farmhouse and was injured by a passing car and saved by the farmer’s little daughter. He lost one of his claws during the accident, but that is the only visible sign of it. Sabine was one of the farmer’s customers and saw him when he was better and allowed to play on the farmyard.

She fell in love with him because he was looking exactly the same as her Tigger and asked the farmer if she could have Frizzi. The farmer’s daughter was hesitant and later agreed that Frizzi would be safer in the care of an older and wiser cat as well as in a huge private garden with no busy roads around. Frizzi joined the household on Sabine’s birthday and was her birthday present. I think that could be a reason why he gets away with so many things. I had another close look at both of them and can now tell the difference between them. Tigger is a little bit fat and has green eyes. His tail is lighter than Frizzi’s, and Frizzi has green eyes and a slim body.
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