Furry family members

My brother's departure to Boarding school, left me with a deep longing for a family. My imagination came to the rescue. I invented a whole family with six brothers. they were all big and strong and I borrowed my cousins' names so they seemed more real. I also had an imaginary dog called Trigger. I would leap about the garden calling his name and throwing him sticks. My Mum and Dad couldn't do anything about the brothers but  one day the most wonderful thing happened. I woke up and could hear Uncle Peter saying to Grandpa" OH isn't she sweet ?!!". Then Grandpa was at my bedroom door holding the most adorable little puppy tucked under his chin.

We called her Sally and she became the fifth member of our family. We all adored her, she had the sweetest, most gentle nature and in our eyes was the most beautiful dog in the world.
Sally was so lovely that we decided to let her have puppies. She was taken off to get to know "Bert".
We then waited nine seemingly endless weeks. Then, one day, in the middle of the night, Grandpa woke us up to witness one of Nature's most marvellous events. Grandpa was a fantastic midwife, he delivered those puppies with great aplomb and competence. Sally was a wonderful mother, gently cleaning them up and letting them settle down to suckle.
We called the puppies Cindy and Susie. A family that we had met on holiday, and who had begged us to let them know if ever Sally had puppies, came and chose Susie.
So for a long, happy time we had Sally and Cindy to enrich our family life.


When we were left with Cindy, she was sad on her own. We were used to having two dogs. Grandpa didn't really want another one. We all suffered from the loss of Sally.

Then, one Christmas Eve, my friend and I decided to see if there were any puppies at the kennel where we got Sally from. They had just one. A little rough-haired male. He had one ear up and one ear down and a really mischievous air about him.
We took him home and gently laid him on Grandpa's lap He looked at him and told us he didn't want any more dogs. We had to keep him over Christmas and then were meant to take him back.
We put him in the kitchen with Cindy and went to bed. We were woken by a howling noise that would put the' Hounds of the Baskervilles' to shame. He was little but he was certainly fierce, we decided to call him "Napoleon". All over Christmas he entertained us with his antics. He knocked over the Christmas tree and walked round covered in tinsel. the howling noise continued whenever he was left alone. He gazed at us all in complete adoration. He and Cindy really liked each other.

Grandpa was firm however and after Christmas, Uncle Peter  and I were told to take him back.

Well, you all know he didn't go back. He had won a place in our hearts forever. He lived for over 17 years and it will take a lot of blogs to tell you all about him.
Once I saw a greetings card that said Please,  make me as good as my dog thinks I am".
Sally, Cindy and Napoleon all thought we were !