I can’t help but be smitten by Star, a Berger de Savoie, who hobbles up to me and rests her shoulder against my leg. I get the feeling she has a story to tell, so I ask her to start at the beginning, and this is her story . . .
“I don’t remember my first few weeks as a puppy, but my first memory was waking up one cold and windy morning. I was shivering and very hungry. I was lost and I didn’t know what to do. I found out later that I was in the forest at Montvalezan.
Anyway, I was busy licking myself, and making myself look as good as I could, when I heard a loud rustling noise. I looked up and saw this man marching towards me, very quickly. He hadn’t seen me, so I stood up and jumped out in front of him to say hello. I let him stroke me, and we chatted for a while. He asked me lots of questions, like where had I come from? but I didn’t know any answers. I felt quite stupid really, but I liked him, and wanted to join his pack. So I followed him all the way to his home in Seez. It was a very long way.”
Now it’s a well-known fact that as dogs, we are at our cutest when we are about 8-10 weeks old. This is because it is the time in our lives when we are looking for a new pack, or a new family to join, and being cute really helps! Luckily for me, I was quite cute as a puppy, but I needed to be.
This man, Richard, gave me some dinner, which was really yummy, and then told me to go home. But I had decided that this was my home now, as the food was sooo good! So I slept on the doormat outside his front door. The next morning when he came outside, he tripped over me, but luckily he didn’t tread on me, which was nice.
There was already a big dog in Richard’s gang, a big Siberian Husky called Bear, and he was very big. Richard was our pack leader, but Bear sometimes made the decisions. At the time, I was all skin and bone, and you could see my ribs. Bear was very kind to me, and he didn’t steal my food, which was great because I couldn’t eat as fast as him.
I had a horrible fluorescent collar which Richard took off and replaced with a more stylish leather one. It was my first ever present and my tail wouldn’t stop wagging. I was very excited. Then I stuck my nose against the patio door window and looked inside Richard’s house. It looked very comfy and I knew it would make a good den for me too.
That day, Richard went to work, but I was too small to go to work, so I stayed at my new home. I went next door and met two small Irish people. They were very young like me, so we played together in their garden until all the big people came home. I liked these little people. They changed my name to Star, which was much better than ‘Dog’.
As you can see, I have a funny leg which is all bent round. It has always been like this, and the grown-ups who lived with Irish children took me to the vets to have it looked at. But the vet said he didn’t know what had made my leg like this. He thought I had been in an accident and broken my leg, and it had mended like this. It doesn’t hurt, and I am thankful that I can walk ok. The vet said he could cut it off, so I put on my best ‘pleading face’, and they decided to let me keep it. I was very scared though. I mean, I would keep falling over if I had a leg missing.”
“Wow, that’s an incredible story! And have you lived with Richard ever since?”
“Yes, and I’m eleven and a half years old now.
At the time, they put up posters for a lost dog. But I wasn’t lost. I knew where I was. Obviously nobody came along to tell me where I was, so Richard and the Irish people talked about where I should live next. They even talked about a special dogs’ home in Chambery, but we never went there, so I don’t know what it is like. But I am very happy living with Richard, and I know he loves me as much as I love him.”
“Do you have a job?”
“Yes, Richard’s wife Sandra has a shop called Sainte-Foy Sports. It’s the Skiset shop, and I’m very busy helping out there. My job is to talk to people and be nice to them so that they buy things. It doesn’t always work, but it does sometimes, and that makes Sandra very happy.”
“What do you do for the rest of the year?”
“There’s no snow in the summer, so me and Richard go around making things out of wood. Richard is really good at making things, like all the woodwork for the counter and the shelves in the shop. He uses noisy machines, but I don’t like machines, so I just sunbathe and keep him company. I’m good at sunbathing and I will be happy to snooze away my days under the mountain sun, and keep Richard company.”
