RIO
My husband and I drove up to the kennels in Stoke to meet Rio. He came rushing into the reception area to meet us, rolled onto his back and promptly did a 'spaniel sprinkle'.
We took him for a walk and were in love. He was just the dog we wanted to share our home with. We took him home and found out what a character he was. He was truly a cheeky dog. We learnt that Rio thought it was his job to investigate every cupboard door that was opened, investigate the sides in kitchen and the dining room table and hoover up anything that was on the floor. He was possessive with food, so we fed every meal by hand, so that Rio could learn that hands were for giving him food, not to be nipped. That helped in his bonding with us. The 'spaniel sprinkle' when we arrived home after being out, gradually stopped. Although he always wanted a tummy rub whenever someone walked in the door.
We worked hard on his recall, in the garden he was fantastic, coming to a whistle and a treat, even when he was woofing at the cats sitting on the fence. Every day he would go the park and my husband would throw tennis balls for Rio to retrieve, mainly those balls which Rio had found in the hedges around our local tennis court, which he would do all day if we let him. In the woods, recall was non-existent, due to abundance of pheasants and deer to chase. However we enjoyed daily walks round those woods on the extendible lead.
Rio was able to tell the difference between a pheasant on the path ahead and a jackdaw. In the summer we filled an old dinghy with water and we would spend lots of time playing splash with Rio, to try and keep him cool, if we were not splashing him with water he would stand inside the dinghy and using one front paw would splash himself. He loved home-made doggy ice-lollies and learnt to recognise the sound of the freezer door.
Rio was one of a kind and we were truly blessed to have lived with him and will treasure all the good memories that we made with him.
Although he was only with us for nine months and the last forty-eight hours were most traumatic, we did sooooo much enjoy having him to stay.
Thank you Di for placing him with us.
Thank you CAESSR, so much for your help, advice, support and understanding in the truly hard decision we had to make, when we had Rio put to sleep.
Vanessa Geoff and Charlie
It is with great sorrow to have to tell you that we have lost our number 1 son Marky on the 19th April 2012 at the age of 10years and 2 months.
That’s who we picked up along with her mother LUCY from the CAESSR kennels one warm June day in 2010. CAESSR had just got off the ground we had just lost our 17 year old rescue Springer. John Powell needed foster and rescue homes for springer’s that had come from a puppy farm in Shropshire. All were in a horrendous condition. One didn’t survive long enough to get a chance at a decent life. David Thomson the vet along with Gina the nurse explained to us that Lucy had an enormous tumour removed, unfortunately they could not be sure that they had got it all so doubted she would live more than a month, maybe two. John Powell wanted Lucy to be fostered with her daughter Sadie as they had a very close bond and indeed they did. Sadie’s mammary strip seemed a trifle then compared to her mums condition, frankly she was second priority at the time.
You wouldn’t think there could be much interaction with a dog that had had such a hard life with all her disabilities but it was exactly the opposite. We will sorely miss her gentle graceful ways and so will her mum Lucy. The best things in life come from where and when you least expect them. Sadie was one of them.
