O’Driscoll, My Boy

My late Border Terrier

Please have the courtesy to read to the end. It supports my writing.

I always told my children not to ask for dogs or cats. I wanted my family to be free to holiday or go away for the weekend without having to find someone or somewhere to take care of it.

One day, I was in a training course in the wilds of my county. I’m glad I shared the drive with a colleague, as I might never have found it. (I once did drive around for two hours and not find where I was supposed to be.) The north of my county is very rural. In fact, I’m surrounded by the bucolic beauty.

During a tea break, I saw someone in the main hall with a tiny puppy. I went over and after petting it some, I asked which breed it was. I thought she said “Border Terrier”, but with hindsight, she probably said Border Collie.

I’m glad I heard Border Terrier. So, I started to research the breed. All seemed good on the whole and I started to look for some puppies. It’s a minefield!

Anyway, soon I was driving home from a town in a neighbouring county with O’Driscoll in a box on the floor beside me. I stopped at a large supermarket to buy food and the needed items, and I got home before my children got back from school.

Here he is as a puppy. I fell in love with his face. My daughter asked whose puppy it was and cuddled him. I replied he was ours and it took quite a while to convince her.

O’Driscoll started his life with us sleeping in the kitchen. He took a week to get to the top of our steep stairs. We kept swooping him up and returning him downstairs. I had wanted him to remain downstairs. When we had our kitchen renewed, he got in the way, so I scooped him up and took him upstairs to have a nap with me. He snuggled into my neck and slept so sweetly. He was not stupid. He knew he had been taken upstairs and kept trying to get there. I sometimes allowed him a nap with me.

O’Driscoll was socialized by coming to the town with me in my basket, wrapped in a towel. It took me an hour to get down the High Street as everyone wanted to pet him or take photos. Most Saturdays, we had milkshakes at a local independent shop and he would sleep under my chair. Puppies sleep a lot. O’Driscoll also came on the school run and to all the activities after school. He won hearts everywhere he went.

It’s hard to train a puppy when a ten-year-old is untraining him while one is cooking or cleaning. But I did prevail, and he turned out fairly well-behaved, although he spent his whole life learning to behave even better.

We took walks along the harbor. I went in all weathers, sometimes three times a day with my beloved boy. My daughter was a bit jealous that he sought me out all the time, and I had to explain that dogs have pack leaders, and because I brought him home, he saw me as his leader.

By the harbor, there is a car park where people with RVs park and have picnics. O’Driscoll learned not to leave the path, and should he appear to momentarily forget this rule, I would call “Don’t even think about it!” or “Oi, you!”. The former made people laugh and the latter made them think about my sanity or manners.

O’Driscoll had a huge vocabulary and certain words would cause his ears to prick up and he would be alert or go looking for burglars. Any food would cause him to be very interested indeed. He would make his own meals last until all hope was gone and then gobble down the rest. He did get our scraps added to his food when there were any.

When I started writing, he would finish off my cup of tea if I should leave the room. If someone knocked at the door, he would do the barking as he needed and then go to drink my tea.

A few times he escaped, and I learned that he would return. However, once I did get a phone call and a kindly lady returned him. Once, he strolled in through the gate where I was sitting waiting, casually dangling a pack of chocolate digestive biscuits between his teeth. I deftly took it and wondered who would find it missing from their shopping bag.

O’Driscoll had a deep interest in shopping bags. I have no idea how this fetish started. He would run up behind someone with one while I called out my rebuke. He always obeyed but had to try anyway. One time, the harbor path was quite empty. Someone was coming toward us with two shopping bags. O’Driscoll was very young then and ran up to them. The person stopped and held the bags high. (This is exactly what not to do!) I was trying to call to my puppy and ask the person to keep walking and put the bags as they would carry them. It seemed to take forever. I think it was only a few minutes. My boy learned and the person was unscathed. Thank goodness no one else did that.

My boy would also like to investigate prams. Not in a harmful way; he was just nosey, as all dogs are. I always reassured the pram parent although most seemed quite happy to say hello to say hello.

When O’Driscoll was two, he stopped sleeping in the kitchen. We had been away to a family funeral in London, and my man said his friend agreed to look after him. This translated to not touching my boy the whole time. I was furious. When we got home, the children were upset that O’Driscoll was crying in the kitchen. My daughter begged for him to come up. I said if she brought him up, she would never be able to not have him at night. I heard her go down to get him when she thought I was asleep. So from then on, he slept upstairs on her bed, but mostly on mine. I got used to it and then I loved it.

His first bed got carried out the garden gates several times. Each time he would take a bite out of it. It eventually had to be thrown out. My boy did this to three beds before we gave up. He was bedless after he no longer slept in the kitchen.

O’Driscoll became slightly eccentric like me. He had the tea thing going on, the ability to eat only the favorite bits of his food before giving up hope for human food. He did once open the biscuit tin. I did not see that, but I saw his embarrassed face.

We would play catch in the garden, and O’Driscoll would run to and fro eager to get the ball. Whoever dropped it or failed to catch, he was on it in a flash and would run like the wind to the double back gates and ground it, as if scoring a try. He knew he was a rugby player! We also used power balls which would see him capering around as it bounced and ricocheted about. The laughter was so joyful. He would bite the power ball and the pieces bounced in an even more chaotic manner. So much fun he had.

We would strip his winter coat each spring. One gently tugs the longer hairs and they easily fall away. He loved it and behaved like a cat, turning his body so we reach other parts. It took a few days. We saved a lot of money by doing it ourselves.

Sometimes, we were silly with him;

I would get him large bones, of which he was very possessive. Until he was nosey about something. I kept the bones out of the dining room and living room. Garden and kitchen only.

For a while, he liked to sit on the window ledge. But I decided to stop that as people would call out. He was such a joy and a complete nutter.

He added such life to our family. I miss him so much. One night, on my bed, he had a seizure. I put my hands on him, which soothed it to an end. I stroked him, and he seemed content. But he stopped wanting to go for walks. He was fine when we were out, but he stayed close. Then, a few days later, I offered him a treat from his left side. He ignored me. I said his name from his left and he didn't respond. I was shocked to realise that he was deaf and blind on his left side. No wonder his confidence was gone. I agonized about what was best. He had an appetite, so that was good.

My sister became ill with sepsis. A neighbor would mind O’Driscoll while I went to the hospital. She died a terrible death. O’Driscoll and my children were my comfort and he and I set out for the four-mile walk to my godmother’s cottage. He was great, and I stopped to give him water a lot.

We came home by taxi, and two weeks later, I felt the kindest thing was to let him go. I cried so much. He was thirteen. Not too bad. But I wasn’t ready so soon after my sister, who died so young.

I still think of him, two years later, and miss him like mad.

Thank you for reading to the end. I thank Dennett for this idea of about our dogs. I’ve loved other dogs too. But O’Driscoll was mine in name.

Thank you for reading. It is much appreciated.