WE THINK PEOPLE LEARN from their animals, even when they're gone. Holly, our energetic wall-jumping Samoyed-Spaniel, is no longer in our back garden. She's at the Inistioge Puppy Rescue and hopes for a new home she she will never leave our memories.
Holly added a real dimension to our lives. She needed care, gave me exercise, kept gurriers off the back wall in the garden, and provided fun all in one go.
"Caring for animals is meant to be good for the heart," says Josephine Plettenberg from her Kilkenny farm. She endures "Holly moments" with puppies who spreads rubbish through her garden, just after chewing her best basket. Ruth and I endured a year's worth of "Holly moments" as we cleaned up uprooted saplings in the back, splinters from kindling chewed next to the fireplace, and replaced carpet unraveled in three rooms. But when Holly sprawled upside down in front of an open hearth blaze, it was hard to deny her place.
Holly brought reality into my world where I often interacted virtually through my keyboard. She brought us dirt to clean, made noises from dreams and pulled us into contact with neighbours who might have only given us a warm smile and a wide berth.
Holly was worth a lot to us. Having her meant finding room in the shopping trolley for the appetite of a baby. She needed to be fed, run, and rubbed. She returned our gestures by always hanging around the house after jumping out and over the six-foot high concrete block wall around the back.
Her jumping out led to her exploring other homes in our estate, stealing shoes, clothes, balls, and food. We would return home in the evenings and find remants of bin bags and backpacks. We couldn't keep the athletic scavenger happy behind a walled garden and she was happiest scavenging.
Worried about the neighbours, we have placed Holly with Brenda Stone's Inistioge Puppy Rescue. We're confident that the community of Irish Animals will help rehome Holly and that she will bring joy to a family of teenagers who want a ball-playing athletic dog. She never tires of running, jumping fun because she saps the energy of those who play her games.
Update: Holly found a home on a farm where she's learned not to chase the chickens.
Josephine Plettenberg -- "The lessons our animals teach us" in The Kilkenny People, 31 Oct 03
denise cox runs Irish Animals where people chat about Holly.
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