The Dog With Nine Lives Read online

  I would have gone with him but that would have meant leaving a whole class of people wondering why I hadn’t turned up.

  On the way to class my heart was on overdrive. Please let her be OK, I prayed. Please don’t let it be today.

  And it seemed my prayers were answered because when Tony phoned he sounded quite upbeat.

  ‘She isn’t going to die. She is very ill, but it isn’t the haemolytic anaemia. She’s on a drip and is stable. We can phone again later for an update.’

  This was great news. After I’d finished teaching I raced home and phoned the vet for an update.

  ‘She is very ill,’ the vet reiterated, ‘but she does seem to be responding to treatment.’

  As soon as I put the phone down it rang again. This time it was my mum phoning from Tenerife where she lived for part of the year. ‘I don’t want to worry you, but your gran has had a fall. I think she’s all right, but I’m just letting you know.’

  I thanked her and we carried on chatting. We’d both been a bit worried about Gran lately. At ninety-six she still lived on her own but she was getting decidedly frailer. I’d been doing her shopping and popping in as often as I could to keep an eye on her but I didn’t live close enough to go every day.

  I told Mum about Lindy and also said I’d ring Gran when I put the phone down.

  But before I had the chance it rang again. This time it was Gran’s cleaner sounding very distressed because she thought Gran should go to hospital as she’d hurt her leg and was bleeding.

  ‘I’m on my way,’ I told her and left the house immediately.

  Gran lived in a flat but fortunately the communal front door was open and so was her front door. I wasn’t prepared for the sight that met me when I went inside. Gran’s white hall carpet was covered in bloody footprints. I followed them to the lounge and found Gran walking around and giggling slightly hysterically.

  ‘What on earth have you done?’ I gasped.

  ‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘Nothing wrong with me.’

  This was patently not true, although I still couldn’t see where the blood was coming from.

  ‘Please, Gran, just show me where you’ve hurt yourself,’ I begged, and reluctantly she agreed and pulled up the leg of her tracksuit bottom.

  She had what I can only describe as a balloon shaped bag of blood attached to her calf. She had wrapped a tea towel around it, and this was blood soaked, and every time she moved more blood spurted from the bag, which I realised had formed from her own stretched skin.

  Horrified, I reached for the phone.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she yelped.

  ‘Phoning an ambulance,’ I said. ‘You need to go to hospital.’

  She protested vehemently and was still protesting when the paramedics arrived. But they were wonderful and they very gently managed to persuade her that hospital was the best place for her to be.

  I followed in my car. My worries about Lindy had been pushed to the back of my mind but they were still there. At the hospital Gran was taken to a side ward where there was a long wait to see the doctor. It was now around 3 p.m.

  At 7 p.m. although Gran had seen a registrar and had a temporary dressing put on her leg, we were still waiting to see someone who would make the decision whether or not to keep her in hospital. I was anxious that she stayed in hospital. I didn’t want her going back to her flat alone – not least because it looked like a crime scene and I wanted to get the carpets cleaned before she went home. Gran refused point blank to come back to our house, which she said was cold, and I was also worried about her mental state.

  She was usually so sharp, but she seemed muddled and confused. In between waiting for the doctor I’d been nipping outside to phone the vet’s for progress reports of Lindy.

  The news wasn’t good but it wasn’t too bad either. She was responding to treatment, she was sitting up, they hadn’t worked out what was wrong with her, but they thought she was improving.

  At 9 p.m. Gran finally saw a doctor who said, to my great relief, that she must stay in hospital while they sorted out her leg. I phoned to tell Tony that I’d be leaving shortly and asked him to phone the vet for another progress report as my battery was getting low and I didn’t want my mobile to conk out midway through a conversation.

  Then I finally left the hospital. I was driving through Kinson, which was about halfway home when my phone rang again. It was Tony.

  ‘I’m really sorry,’ he began, ‘But I just phoned the vet and Lindy passed away an hour ago.’

  I remember shouting at him that this couldn’t be right. She’d been improving the last time I’d phoned. Poor Tony must have been deafened by my howls of grief. I couldn’t see straight for tears. I could certainly no longer drive. I pulled over to the side of the road and I rested my head on the steering wheel and just cried and cried. I thought my heart would break.

  Lindy and I had been through so much and I hadn’t even had the chance to say goodbye.

  Afterword

  THERE IS NO HAPPY ending when you lose someone you love. I know from experience that it’s as heartbreaking to lose a dog you love as it is to lose a person. This is a truth that has never really surprised me. After all, love is love, and is not determined by whether a creature has two legs or four.

  I never planned to get involved with Lindy. I never planned to bring a little stray dog back to England. If I hadn’t had such long arms maybe none of it would have happened. But I do know that I feel blessed.

  We had her for eight fantastic years. She brought immense joy into our lives. She brought us worries too, but, then, the two usually come hand in hand, don’t they? Life was certainly never dull with Lindy around. She lived every one of her nine lives to the full.

  She even trained up her successor – Rosie never did get a home – and she has very big paw prints to fill, but I think Lindy would have approved of our decision to keep her. In fact whenever I think about Lindy and her life with us, I smile. Could she have left us a better legacy than that? I don’t think so!

  Useful Addresses

  Dog’s Trust

  Head Office

  Dogs Trust, 17 Wakley Street, London, EC1V 7RQ

  www.dogstrust.org.uk

  The Society for Companion Animal Studies (SCAS)

  Support for bereaved pet owners

  Contact 0800 096 6606 (some mobile networks may charge) from 8:30am - 8:30pm, or email

  [email protected].

  Useful websites

  Dorset Animal Workers Group (DAWG) (Dog Rescue)

  www.dawgdogs.net

  Lyn at Happy Dogs (Dog Rescue)

  www.happydogsrescue.co.uk

  Liz at Somerset and Dorset Animal Rescue (Animal Rescue)

  www.somersetanddorsetanimalrescue.co.uk

  Happy Landings (Animal Rescue)

  www.happy-landings.org.uk

  Jo at Tricks4Treats (Dog Training in Dorset)

  www.tricks4treats.co.uk

  Also by Della Galton

  HELTER SKELTER

  Brought up on a seaside fairground, Vanessa knows all about what a rollercoaster ride life can be. Tragedy forces her to flee but when she discovers that her husband, a property developer, is cheating on her she returns. But the fair has gone, the land, bought by her husband, is now covered by luxury flats.

  Going back can be painful but this is just the start of the Helter Skelter for Vanessa. While she feels her life is spiralling ever downwards, there are the strong arms of a passion from her past to catch her at the end.

  ISBN 9781905170975 Price £6.99

  PASSING SHADOWS

  How do you choose between friendship and love? Maggie faces an impossible dilemma when she discovers that Finn, the man she loves, is also the father of her best friend’s child. Should Maggie betray her best friend, who never wanted him to know? Or lie to Finn, the first man she’s ever trusted enough to love? The decision is complicated by the shadows of her past.

  ISBN 9781905170234 Price £6.99<
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  Also from Accent Press

  Few people can appreciate the joy that being owned by a cat brings better than David St John Thomas – the latest in a long line of publishers and authors to pay homage to the very special cats who have entered their busy lives. This is a book for everyone who really cares about cats. Vividly written, sometimes serious, sometimes light-hearted, anyone who has fallen for a cat, however much against their better judgement, is bound to find it uplifting. While cat people are nice (Hitler couldn’t stand them!), the real heroes in this book are naturally the cats themselves. A rich portfolio of feline characters – including the author’s own cats – step off the page, or perhaps lie curled in seductive curves on it, so vividly that you can feel their fur and hear their purr! Rich in entertaining anecdotes and asides, For the Love of a Cat will enhance all cat owners’ understanding of their feline friend and remind them again and again just how lucky they are to share their lives with this most fascinating of creatures.

  ISBN 9781921497360 – £9.99

  Lying on beach Rhodes, 2001

  Lindy as we first saw her, Rhodes, 2001

  Lindy in Rhodes Animal Welfare Sanctuary (RAWS), 2001

  Lindy with her 13 puppies in RAWS

  Della visits Lindy in quarantine in Salisbury, 2002

  Lindy in quarantine, 2002

  Lindy working on getting fatter, 2002

  Home in Dorset, Lindy relaxes in the garden of her new home

  Lindy and Della in garden, 2007

  Lindy steals another dog’s basket, 2004

  Lindy and Della, 2007

  Lindy tired from steroids, 2007

  Lindy in the garden, September 2007

  Lindy in the garden, September 2007

  Lindy and Della, 2007

  Walkies! Maggie, Abel and Lindy, 2007

  Della, Lindy and Maggie, Brecon Beacons, 2008

  Lindy on holiday, Brecon Beacons, 2008

  Della’s husband Tony with Lindy

  Lindy and Maggie, November 2008

  Cushion-shredding dog, 2009

  Lindy plays with other dogs on Chesil Beach, Dorset, 2009

  Rosie, latest foster dog, 2009

  How many dogs can you fit in your life?

  Della with Tony’s dog Seamus, 2010

  Della with Seamus, Rosie, and Maggie, 2010

  Life as a foster dog is tough, Rosie and Seamus, 2010