Dexter
We had planned - but not booked - a 'doggy-friendly' holiday with Benson in September and so, as the dates approached and our grief at Benson's demise diminished (or perhaps became more easy to manage), it seemed a good time to try and fill the huge hole that had been left in our lives.
Click Here to See Old Pictures of Our Lives with Benson and Toby from 2001 to 2012
Meeting Dexter at the Rehoming Centre
We had realised that, this time, we wouldn't have enough free time to raise a puppy, so any new dog would have to be one looking for a new home. Steve had done most of the research, and we had made several visits to re-homing centres belonging to both Battersea Dogs Home and the Dogs Trust (where Steve had previously volunteered), but most dogs we offered a home to were deemed unsuitable for various reasons. But then, a few days before our holidays were due to start, Phil got a message at work that Steve had come up with a match! While he had already met the dog - called Rupert - and reserved him, Phil had to wait a further two days to meet him at the Dogs Trust's Canterbury home. But it was as obvious to him as it had been to Steve that this was the one we had been looking for. Except for the name. Rupert, being the name of our next door neighbour, was not going to work so we quickly decided on Dexter. Dexter would be coming home on Wednesday, after a home visit on Monday. In the meantime, we took him for a walk in the woods every day. |
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Coming Home
Finding His Feet
Meeting Friends
Dexter Takes to Public Transport
Networking
Jackie met Dexter
when we visited her in
the Summer in her house in France, and we knew it wouldn't be long before she
had a new dog. So it was no surprise to meet Teddy when we all got
together at Phil and Tessa's for a pre-Christmas meet. As it was
Dexter's first experience of spending any time with another dog, we were
delighted to find that they got on really well. As both clearly have
some Terrier in their backgrounds, they were soon tearing around Phil and
Tessa's garden. Click Here for a short film of the weekend on YouTube. |
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Christmas 2013
We had Phil's sister and brother-in-law Pat
and Steve over for Boxing day, and we all enjoyed the bright but chilly
weather when we took Dexter on his walk in the hills near our house.
But Dexter more than enjoyed the rubber chicken toy that they brought as his
present!
Click Here to see
Dexter playing with his new toy on YouTube. A few days later saw us visiting Botany Bay (the one in nearby Margate, rather than the Australian one!), in equally bright and chilly conditions. |
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Exploring Kent
A Day Out in Dungeness
On a freezing cold day in February we needed a trip out, so decided to revisit the slightly surreal landscape of Dungeness. Despite the blue skies, Dexter did not go for a swim that day! |
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Spring 2015 with the House-Sitters
Spring saw our first holiday of the year in Spain coming up so, no longer having a dog-sitter on call, we decided to try a website called trustedhousesitters.com, where people - usually retired couples - house- and dog-sit without charging. For them, it's a free holiday while for us it's a free sitter. The couple - from Yorkshire - even took most of these pictures of Dexter. |
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Summer Days Out (and another House-Sitter)
When we first moved to Canterbury, we had
hoped that we would be able to visit London on a regular basis. While
this has proved true for Steve - for work, unfortunately - Dexter has proved
an obstacle for social visits. In early June however we did manage a trip on
the train to Stratford for a walk around the Olympic Park. A couple of weeks later we stayed closer to home when, with a couple of neighbours (Angela and Jeannie), we went for a walk around the nearby town of Sandwich. Although we had been there before, our first visit failed to discover either the town's ramparts or the pretty centre. After lunch at the Salutation (the posh couple's place from Gogglebox), we were happy to admit that our first impression of Sandwich had been mistaken. The third row of pictures on the right are from Jeanette, a house-sitter from Vancouver Island, who stayed with Dexter when we went off to Spain for our second visit of the year. The final pictures were taken on a hot day in August at Reculver - one of our favourite local beaches - where Dexter enjoyed a cool swim. |
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Dexter Under Attack
Our friend Jo was looking after Dexter for a
weekend in October while we were away visiting friends in Torquay.
During our drive back we got a frantic call from her telling us about Dexter
being attacked on a walk in the fields near us by three other dogs.
Another woman helped her rescue Dexter from his ordeal, and Jo then got him
to the vet. She then took herself to A&E for stitches to the wounds
she herself had suffered. We rushed straight to the vet to see him,
but were unable to take him home until the next day, after an operation.
Jo came round to fill us in on the details (and have some hugs). Dexter fully recovered from his injuries, but there was a postscript two months later. While in Spain over Christmas, Dexter was attacked again by a neighbour's normally friendly dog, and needed metal staples for the neck wounds. Again he has fully recovered, but we hope that he starts getting more popular with other dogs. |
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Spring 2016
Dexter's First Visit to Cornwall