The new Matriarch

Following the death of Anne's mother, Anne's Aunt Pat, who had shared a house with her for many years, was very lonely. The family had had dogs when she young but she didn't feel that she could take on one in her mid 80s. We rescued Missy at Christmas 2002 and gave her to Aunt Pat, as a companion and made it quite clear that if anything happened we would take her back.

Missy made an enormous difference to the quality of Auntie's life. She started going out for walks which improved her health and balance. As Auntie was very deaf Missy would tell her that there was someone at the door or on the telephone. As time went on she started to answer the telephone too, which was a bit disconcerting for all concerned! She even managed to frighten away an intruder who, having got into the porch, was in the process of kicking in the front door.

Unfortunately, at the age of 91 Auntie Pat developed senile dementia, lost the ability to care for herself and had to move into residential care.

So in February 2008 Missy transferred and became the newest member of the Anne Loader Publications team.

As Goldie and Ziggy became hard of hearing in their old ages she took on Goldie's the role of Head of Security and not very much passed her attention.

Although being much smaller than the other two and having the Jack Russell independent mind she has created security problems herself, finding holes in fences which where too small to be of interest to the others.

In September 2008 she disappeared whilst we were walking in Marbury Country Park, an area of 350 hectares on the edge of Northwich, two days before we were due to go to Canada. We spent 8 hours searching for her without success and in the end gave up, assuming she must have fallen into a disused salt mine or got stuck in a rabbit hole. We left a message on the answerphone asking anyone who found her to contact the dog sitter, who was looking after the other two. Twelve days after she had disappeared she turned up dishevelled and very much thinner in the local Aldi store, which is just on the edge of the park, only about 200 metres from where she went missing. A woman doing her shopping took pity on her, fed her some of the cat food she had just bought and phoned the dog sitter, so we got her back.

Within the ability of a Jack Russell to have a salutatory lesson, it was a salutatory lesson and she is now a lot more likely to do what she has been told and come when she is called.

She loves being in St Paradis and spends most of her time outside, even sun-bathing when it is very hot. She protects us from hedgehogs, lizards and chickens. Fortunately, as the latter are very free range and sometimes come into our garden and frequently into the field, they can still fly and in the one major encounter escaped with the loss of a few feathers. This means she has to be confined to the garden and is taken for walks in the lead – she might not be so lucky a second time especially if she encounters some of our other neighbours – heavy horses, bulls and cows with calves, wild boars and snakes.

After the deaths of Goldie and Ziggy, we rescued Barney the Collie, with Missy's approval. They have the same colouring and look like a canine version of "Little and Large". Given that Barney is nearly four times her size Missy has now been promoted to Matriarch and he is a very efficient Head of Security.

FOOTNOTE: We are sad to report that Missy was 'put to sleep' on Sunday, March 3rd 2013, after suffering violent fits. She had been ailing for some time and had got to the point where she no longer wanted to go for a walk in the evenings. Previously this had been the high point of her day. We knew something was badly wrong when she made herself a little nest in an inaccessible part of the garden about a week before she died, and afterwards spent a lot of time curled up asleep in dark corners of the house. We don't know exactly how old she was, because she was rescued, but reckon she must have been at least 13 years old. We remember her with fondness as a valued member of the family.