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Fleet and Flash
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‘FLEET’ PEWTERSPEARE PLAIN SAILING (Sh Ch Sorbus Who Dares Wins X Frecklefoot Windsurfer with Pewterspeare) ‘FLASH’ PEWTERSPEARE PRIVATE EYE (Sh Ch Sorbus Who Dares Wins X Frecklefoot Windsurfer with Pewterspeare)
‘My Boys’ are Poppy’s sons and a sweeter pair you couldn’t wish to meet. Soft as butter they jostle for attention in the politest possible way and adore being allowed to sit on my knee. As a puppy, Flash was the most precocious and had many excellent placings. Fleet took his time to mature, but when he did he quickly gained his stud book number. Sadly shortly before Crufts 2005, he developed a malignant tumour on the left side of his head, and the resulting operation to excise it involved removing the muscle which operates his ear. He now looks cutely lop-sided, but his showing days are over.
Both ‘Boys’ are blood donors – here is their story:- Theo is the treasured companion and competitive obedience dog belonging to a friend of mine. Although Alison has other dogs of her own, and as a police dog handler, her working canine companions, Dobermann, Theo holds a special place in her heart. When he was taken seriously ill, she was devastated and in order to save his life, Theo needed a blood transfusion. However, vets are unable to store blood without a licence and the hunt was on to find a donor. Alison was fortunate enough to have enough doggy friends who rallied round and provided a suitable canine donor – thus Theo’s life was saved. Apparently the vet didn’t keep a list of possible donors and it was up to the poor dog’s owner at a time of great distress, to try and find a suitable match. Alison was lucky, but many others might not be so. My own vet has two surgeries and a hospital providing 24 hour emergency cover with state of the art facilities so I asked what they would do. They were not licences to store blood but did have a list of possible donors. Donors have to be over 30 kilos and in good health, so I offered the services (unknown to them) of the lovely Fleet and Flash.
Three years and many more trips to the vet later I had a phone call from them asking if I could bring in one of the boys – they were expecting a poorly dog who would require blood. My hero was Fleet. He said ‘I’m your man’ and happily popped into the car and we drove to the hospital. The blood was taken from his neck which has to be shaved (so don’t take someone you are showing that week!) – they said they may have to sedate him, but he didn’t notice anything and sat there quite happily during the whole proceedings and was delighted with the offer of sausages as a reward – and still had room for his dinner when he got home. The poorly dog was successfully treated and returned to his grateful owner.
You never know when you might be in the position of Theo and his owner, Alison – it could well be my turn next – however I hope because I have made a small contribution to someone else, I could at some time in the future be repaid in kind.
About a year after I wrote this story, I had a phone call from Deirdre and Derek – good friend of mine who had become so because they owned Pippin who is Fleet and Flash’s litter brother. Pippin is their ‘raison d’etre’ – he is spoiled without being ruined and wants for nothing. However, the Saturday saw him off his food, but he perked up for a bit of chicken in the evening. The next day he was under the weather and fell down the three steps from the kitchen to the living room. They took him to the vets first thing Monday who could not ascertain what was wrong. H was having great difficulty breathing and a raging temperature. They had him booked in with the groomer who had cancelled so they bathed him themselves. They also ‘Frontlined’ him, but I have not heard of any adverse reactions to this. His booster had been 9 months previously; he had not eaten, drunk, been anywhere or done anything different. He is not overweight or underweight. He doesn’t suffer from any allergies to food or the environment. He is a big strong boy in the prime of his life. For something as major as this you would think that there should have been something momentous to start it off. As their vet was unable to make a diagnosis and could not control his raging temperature, Pippin was transferred to Liverpool Veterinary Hospital. I offered them Fleet and Flash should they need a blood donor.
Tests at Liverpool revealed a mass in his abdomen, his temperature was out of control and he was in great pain which they were also having trouble controlling. His breathing was still bad and they needed to do a biopsy, but his blood was failing to clot. So Fleet and Flash were invited to Liverpool to give a unit of blood each, which they did – Fleet quite happily, but poor Flash got so excited he had to be sedated.
Sadly, Pippin didn’t survive long enough for the blood to be used. There was no diagnosis and we are waiting the results of the Post Mortem. Deirdre and Derek are devastated. Pippin was not quite 7 years old. ADDENDUM The Post Mortem results revealed that Pippin died of an overwhelming bacterial infection called Klevsiella. We will never know how or where he contacted it.
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Flash
Flash
Fleet
Fleet
Fleet
and Flash and sandwich
Pippin