Molly

Something a bit different today, normal service will resume in my next post.

It was a year ago that my predecessor passed, without which I would not be here providing these updates, so I felt that a post of remembrance was due.

As I never met her myself this information is what my staff members have shared with me. Apparently she didn’t like other dogs, even those as handsome as me, and had mannerisms more akin to a cat than a dog, but as I like cats I think that maybe we would have got along.

Molly was a small Shih Tzu who makes this big small-dog look like a giant monster. She was fortunate enough to be with Senior Staff Member from when she (Molly, not staff member) was a puppy, enjoying the life of the princess that she thought she was; Shih Tzu’s ancestry indicating a past within royalty and she believed she was. I wonder if I will feel like royalty after fifteen years with Senior Staff member? His Royal Highness Chapi does have a nice ring to it.

Although initially not keen on cars, something I can’t fathom, she grew comfortable in them and travelled the length and breadth of the UK on pack holidays. Once she was asleep in the car staff would not stop unless she woke up, they arrived at their destination, or ran out of petrol. There are tales of a straight 5+hour journey without a toilet break as Molly had a good nap.

She was very scared of fireworks, something she only got better with in her teenage years, resulting in pack holidays in November each year as they sought out quiet isolated corners of the country to keep her calm, while bonfire night turned population centres into war zones for her. There is always the chance that she just enjoyed holidays and the chance to scrounge for cake in dog-friendly eateries, this photo shows that we shared a trait

The complication for staff was that while she enjoyed pack holidays, she didn’t actually like to walk. Senior Staff Member does sometimes comment that I can walk even more slowly than Molly, but if it is dry then I am happy to be outside for sniffs, so it’s not quite the same. The exceptions being around squirrels, birds on the ground, or when overtaken by speeding cyclists on the last street home for supper. In those cases she could travel very quickly, much to the delight of staff.

One area where we are completely different is dog food. I’m a dog and I love dog food (along with all other kinds of food), whereas she really didn’t like dog food, possibly because she thought she was a cat. Human food she was happy to eat, but being a dog, staff felt she had to eat dog food every day to get dog nutrients. Every night dinner was a battle for staff, breaking food into tiny chunks, topping it with human foods and hand feeding her. She’d rather starve than eat straight dog food and with her facial fur, lack of snout, and high cleanliness standards she wouldn’t stick her face into a bowl of food like a regular dog. Chapi wins the food eating round and I think I deserve a treat for that?

Yes, that really is Molly dressed as Santa, for the 0.21 seconds she tolerated the outfit for each year. The hat would go on and before anyone could take a photo she’d shake and despite the string holding it on it would spin around. This photo deserves some sort of award for the effort and risk to personal health that was involved in creating it. As a woof who isn’t keen on coats I can’t say I’m particularly looking forward to my turn in the hat this year.

I know that staff miss her dearly, even with this handsome fellow around, and remember fondly their years together. Take care Miss Molly, hopefully the whole pack will meet one day in whatever comes after this life.