Tiny, a dogs story, part 1

My name is Tiny, I know it's a strange name for a Rottweiler but please read on .......

Tiny, a dogs story

My name is Tiny. Well, where do I begin?

I suppose I’ll start from my earliest memory.

I was born to two loving parents on the 13th November 2010, I have 3 brothers and 2 sisters. Where I was born is called, I believe, a Scrap Yard. Yes, I was born on the wrong side of the track, an original ‘Junk Yard Dog!’

However, both my parents and our owners were very good to my siblings and me. They treated us with loving care and wonderful affection. We were all fed very well and never went hungry, in fact, one of my brothers was over weight by the time he was 8 weeks, yeah! 8 weeks!! but he was always a ‘Greedy Guts’.

I was the ‘Middle Pup’. So I was, I would like to say, a well balanced dog, I would love playing with my Brothers and Sisters and of course Mum & Dad. I remember once climbing on top of my Dad’s back while he was lying down asleep and nipping his ear with my sharp little baby teeth, he yelped and jumped up, setting me flying. Needless to say, I got a clip around my own ear for that one, but I survived.

By the time my 8-week birthday came along I was quite a confident little boy, and all day I would just play and sleep. Life was so good and I was very happy. I didn’t know that one day my life was about to change.

I remember a car coming into our yard and a man, woman and 2 children getting out. While the man spoke to our owners, the woman and children came over to us. They started to play with me, I was quite scared as I had never been that close up with humans before. Even our owners didn’t pick us up. They put me down and I ran to my mummy, but within 15 minutes they picked me up again and I was whisked away. I was put into a cardboard box and put into the back of the car.

The car moved off, I was terrified as I thought my whole world was moving under my feet and I couldn’t understand why I could not get steady.

Unfortunately because of this weird and frightening place that I was in, I ended up having a ‘little accident’, yes, I weed myself! NOT NICE, when your stuck in a box, believe me.

Eventually the car stopped and I was brought into my new house.

I never saw my family again!!

The next thing I remember is waking up on a soft fluffy blanket, it was very warm and snugly and I loved it. It became my ‘blankey’ from then on. My new mummy ‘Siobhan’ and the 2 children came into the kitchen and started to play with me for a little while and then it was breakfast time!! Yum! Yum! My breakfast was fantastic! It was juicy, meaty, beefy flavoured and I wanted more and more, delicious! And best of all, I did not have to fight my brothers and sisters for it. I got this food (in small portions) up to 4 times a day and I had plenty of water available too.

I remember one day when I was about 10 weeks, one of the children (his name is Joey), came into the kitchen with a small pot of ‘white creamy looking stuff’. He put it on the floor for me to investigate and of course, being a puppy, I duely did. I licked the contents and WOW! It tasted fab, so I ate it all up and loved it. To this day I am addicted to Yoghurt, “I LOVE YOGHURT!!”.

Another memory I have is my first trip to the vets, I was still only 10 weeks old and when I got there, by way of my ‘Moving World’, The Car, I was really curious. It was full of other dogs and some other furry animals that I had never seen before. It was a bit scary but I was OK because Siobhan was holding me on her lap, in my ‘blankey’. Eventually we were called into the vet’s office. It was very clinical and for someone my size, it was huge!

The vet picked me up and put me on the table where she examined me, she was happy with the way I looked and my weight.

She gave me my injections, which I hardly felt, and then she dropped the bombshell…… I HAD FLEAS!! OMG!! I had fleas!!. I was wondering why I was scratching so much, so that’s why! She gave Siobhan some tablets to give me to get rid of them and I thought they were going to be magic pills that would work in an instant. Not so my friends!! While I had to take the tablets crushed into my food (YUCK!!), my mummy also used to bath me everyday! Yes! Everyday!

I was not going to die from flea bites however I was possibly going to drown or catch pneumonia instead!!! No really, she was great and my ‘little problem’ was cleared up within two weeks. Thanks Mummy.

During my first 4 weeks in my new house I was brought outside numerous times a day, where I duely relieved myself, I did, I must add, also relieve myself numerous times inside the house, but we won’t go there. Surfice to say, there was a lot of cleaning up for a few weeks, until I finally got the message….. GO OUTSIDE!!!

It was during these visits outside that I first met my neighbours. They were quite tall, mind you I was only 12 inches tall so everything looked tall to me, and they were quite posh looking too. Really blonde and very clean and very curious about me. Their names are Baron & Duke and they were Labradors. I was still so small I could squeeze through the fence into next doors garden and then through the gateposts into their back garden, easy peasy!! I used to do this everyday, even when my new found friends were not out. It felt safe and I loved exploring their world.

It was on one of these expeditions that I got the fright of my life! I was doing the usual sniffing around when I can across a large rockery. I started to explore this and within a split second this slimy yoke jumped way up into the air and I nearly had a heart attack! I ran after it and caught up with it at the top of the garden, Gotcha!! I had it cornered. I slowly moved towards it and almost came face to face with it.

It did not move, so I jumped around it a little and it still didn’t move. I paused for a moment and then I felt it!!! A rumbling in my stomach!. It was moving up towards my throat and then all of a sudden I let out this LIONS ROAR!! Yes!, I had just said my first bark. I had found my voice!! It felt fantastic!!!! I barked at everything,!! the birds, the wind, the grass, everything!!

As for my slimy four-legged friend, he just looked at me, jumped over the fence and was gone!!

As I was now becoming a ‘big boy’ I did of course, get up to a lot of mischief. I had a tendency to topple over the bin in the kitchen quite a lot, I loved rummaging through it. My favourite thing to find was, and I stress, WAS! Nappies!. Yes I know, disgusting! But I was young.

The family would go to bed and get up to a complete mess the next morning. I would also steal the children’s toys to chew and all kinds of shoes, it was great fun at the time (and secretly, it still is).

I did steal something quite precious once and it still haunts me to this day. I managed to sneak into the children’s toy room and I got hold of a floppy, mucky looking, soft toy and quietly ran out of the back door with it.

I had a brill’ time with this thing, throwing it up in the air and catching it. I finally shredded it and I think I swallowed some of the stuffing. It was great fun!

Later that evening there was a real commotion going on in the house, Siobhan, Rick (my other owner) and the children were tearing the place apart looking for something. Heidi was crying her little heart out and her Mummy & Daddy were trying to console her but to no avail, even little Joey was rubbing her hair to try to help.

She eventually cried herself to sleep, it was then that I remembered, she always took a floppy, mucky looking bunny to bed. I had destroyed her ‘Blankey’. I was devastated. I never took any of the children’s toys from that day on!!!

I was, by now, starting to grow up a little. I had long gangly legs, think baby Giraffe, I had shinny black silky (Fur) hair and I was becoming quite a ‘catch’, if I do say so myself. I loved playing chasing with Heidi & Joey. We would run around the house causing mayhem!!! Mind you I was never very steady on tiled floors and would go spread eagled without even trying.

I loved it when Siobhan would let me up on the couch at the end of the day and I’d fall asleep with exhaustion. But the best part of my day was when I went for walks with Baron & Duke, but before I go there, let me introduce you to my other family, my neighbours, Byron and Adrienne. They own Baron and Duke and they make the bestest friends in the whole world. I met Byron and Adrienne within a week of moving into my new home and of course I was frightened of them. As you can imagine, I was frightened of everything in those days. I had no need to be because Byron & Adrienne turned out to be mad dog people, no I really mean it, mad dog people, mind you that sounds wrong, they are not into MAD dogs but are real dog lovers! Baron & Duke are their kids and they are treated almost like humans! See! Mad dog people!!!!

They turned out to be fantastic and I love them to bits, Byron is a lot stricter than Adrienne, he helped train me and developed my obedience skills. He brought me on walks twice a day with Baron & Duke and taught me how to behave on the lead. It was great and I felt so proud. I was becoming a proper ‘Mans Best Friend’ and I was loving it.

However, Baron & Duke were not always HAPPY to see me! They are a lot older than me and of course I would drive them crazy with my playful, ‘jumping all over them’, behaviour. Duke used to growl at me a little bit but Baron was so soft natured, he would just put up with me. It was like he understood that I was just a kid, doing kids stuff.

Duke on the other hand was having none of it and gave me a wide berth, I think he may have been a bit jealous of my relationship with Byron and Adrienne. So Duke kept me at paws length in an effort not to let me get too close to his family.

On our walks we were sometimes joined by Patch, a Springier Spaniel. He was wired to the moon and I now know why they are called ‘springier’. I have never seen a dog with so much energy. He would run mad across the bog and fields and come back filthy dirty and I mean filthy!! I did (stupidly) follow him one day and came back smelling like a sewer! Never again !!! Mum was not impressed either.

Now, as far as my other mummy, Adrienne, goes, she is fab!! and she trained me to eat ‘nicely’ from her hand, I can even bite a dog biscuit in half whilst she holds one end, the other end is between my back teeth.

I obey all her commands; if she says ‘leave’ I will not touch it, until she says, “go on”.

If I am eating from my bowl and she comes and takes my food away, then so be it, she taught me to wait! Her wish is my command and I have no problems in obeying her.

Adrienne is great fun too, we play chasing every evening when she gets home from work. She pretends to frighten me and chase me around the car. Sometimes she hides behind the back of the car and I stop at the front of it, she then jumps out and waves her arms in the air like mad and I leg it!!!!! it’s scary fun, if you know what I mean. We have a great time and she loves cuddling me before she goes in doors.

Now it was around January 2012 that I noticed a change in the atmosphere in my house, I was 14 months old by then and getting quite clever. I knew something wasn’t right. There was a lot of shouting and crying and I just knew something was going to happen!

It did!! It started with me being left out all night and slowly progressed from there. Siobhan would put Heidi & Joey to bed and head to bed early herself. Rick worked late nights and it was his job to let me in before he went to bed, but he never did, It was not long before I found a cosy shelter under the trees in Byron & Adrienne’s garden, hoping they would come out and discover me there. It was cosy but really scary, it was pitch black and sometimes lashing rain. Believe me, a real nightmare!

The next thing I knew in this ‘on going story’ with Siobhan & Rick was that we were moving, I was going to a new house!!

This, you can imagine, was not what I wanted to hear! I was going to lose everything familiar and safe to me. I was also going to lose my other family. I was going to lose Adrienne. I had grown very close to Adrienne and her to me. She treated me like she treated Baron & Duke and that’s saying something, believe me.

How would I survive without Byron, without my pals, Baron & Duke? I just could not believe this was happening to me. It was like being taken from the ‘scrap yard’ all over again!!!

But life is strange, as it happened my owners hadn’t secured a new house, however, they had given notice and had to move out. We all had to move but they couldn’t take me with them immediately, Phew!! a reprieve. So Byron & Adrienne volunteered to take care of me. I was delighted! I was going to be with my other family, 24/7. I love my family, lots and lots but I was so excited about being ‘next door’, full time.

The first day we went for walks, got my treats and had my playtime with Adrienne. I was not, at this point, allowed in doors because I drove Duke crazy. So I stayed outside, but this time I was in Byron and Adrienne’s back garden. They constantly came out and there were loads of kisses and cuddles.

Adrienne would get my head between her hands and scrunch up forehead and face and kiss me between my eyes, I’m sure I looked like one of those wrinkly dogs! You know the ones I mean. Well I loved it anyway, no matter what I looked like.

Adrienne gave me a duvet to sleep on and put it into their garden shed, which they cleared out for me. Imagine, my very own doghouse and it was a mansion!!!

During the day, Byron would bring out my duvet and put it under the gazebo for me to snooze on. Of course I would drag it around the garden, lots of times, as a toy or to be honest I would follow the Sun as it moved over head, I just love sleeping in the Sun.

My new ‘blankey’ used to get soaked from all the rain so they came up with a genius idea……… put some granite rocks around the edge and he won’t be able to move it. It worked! from then on I always had somewhere warm, cosy and dry to sleep, day and night.

Adrienne even put a double cushion from the garden swing onto the floor of the shed, pure luxury or what!!!!

My life was fantastic and I was so, so happy. It even progressed to being allowed into the house, the lads tolerated me being there but I still could not master those tiled floors and practised my ‘spread eagle’ manoeuvre, often.

One day Rick, Siobhan and the children visited me and I was so happy to see them, it was great to see my mummy again. She loved where I was sleeping and she saw how I was being looked after. I really had missed her and the family but I was content where I was. But all too soon she had gone again, she was still looking for a place and I was being left with Byron & Adrienne for the foreseeable future, I know it sounds awful but I was hoping it was going to be forever!

However, that day came and Siohban came to pick me up to take me to my new home, I was so excited to see her again that I got lost in the moment and didn’t realise what was happening.

Before I knew it, I was in Siobhan’s car being driven away, I wanted to scream, No, Please! Don’t take me away!

But of course I couldn’t and I was whisked away once more from those I loved so dear. But worst of all what about Adrienne, she was at work !!! I would never get the chance to say goodbye, please don’t let this be happening!!!!

My new home was in a small town, if that’s not bad enough (here it goes from bad to worse), Rick was not living there, I didn’t understand. The house, its self, was quite big but it had no back garden and an unsecured front garden. So my mummy could not let me out much and if she did I would run around like a lunatic, just glad to be outside. She would walk me but people started staring at mum and me and I could tell she was nervous, I did not like the amount of cars either, they frighten me! So the walks became less frequent and I was stuck in doors most of the day and night. I was let out to wee and poo but had to come back in straight away, this was not what I was used to!

One day there was a knock at the door, it was Adrienne, I just couldn’t believe my eyes! I jumped all over her, I fell upside down for her and I couldn’t stop wanting to touch her. She was here and she was going to take me back with her. But that was not to be. She stayed with me for a couple of hour but then she was gone again.

Byron visited me a couple of times too and took me for proper ‘man’ walks, but he too had to go back and I found myself, once again, stuck indoors.

It’s been 2 months since we moved into this house and things, unfortunately, have gone from bad to worse.

Two weeks ago we had a different kind of visitor, it was the dog warden!!!! Apparently, some of the neighbours had complained about me. Me!! I’m hardly out of the house, what have I done to complain about???

He spouted out something about me being a ‘dangerous breed’!!!!!, you have got to be joking, I’m Tiny! I’m as gentle as a lamb, as cuddly as a soft toy, you’ve got the wrong house, mate.

But no, he insisted on lots of conditions and restrictions to be put on me, as if I did not have enough already, or he will come and take me away from my family. I dread to think what would happen to me then.

So, I now only lie around moping, feeling very depressed. I have no interest in playing with Mum, the children or even my beloved chewy toys. I’m only 17 months old and I feel I am only left with memories of what used to be, ‘my happy life’.

My life has taken a further turn for the worse, my Mum, Siobhan has been told by the landlord that she can’t keep me indoors, so I’m in a bit of a pickle!!! To say the least. The dog warden has instructed Siobhan to keep me in and the Landlord wants me out.

Byron, Adrienne and my bestest friends, Baron & Duke are going to take me back but they can’t keep me for long, 3 of us would be a real nightmare for the both of them. I truly understand why I can’t go back there permanently, though it would be my dream come true.

Hence, this is why I am telling you my story, in the hope that you might know someone kind and loving that would be interested in taking care of me.

I am still a puppy really and I have loads to give. Forget the name of my breed, we get such bad press and we are not all renegades like the ones in the news. I have been brought up so gently and with tons of love, that, that’s all I know how to show and give.

I’d love you to meet me and see for yourselves, I’d love the chance to finally find a ‘life’ home instead of just another house. I would love the chance to love you!!!

Well that's part 1 come and see part 2, I get a home, yep a real home