THE ADVENTURES OF TIGGER AND FANCY

THE ADVENTURES OF TIGGER AND FANCY

By Linda Ward
Part One
Kismet.

Some of the truest and dearest friendships seem to happen by chance. It is only much later, When we take a long backward glance that we see it had to be destiny.

Tigger was a solid gold Shih Tzu and Fancy was a "trained" Doberman. Fancy had chosen education curriculum at her dog school. At the time that we bought Fancy we were in need of a guard dog for our show horses. We needed someone who would discourage unwanted intruders to our barn. The local dog school had been highly recommended to us by friends. We made an appointment to look at dogs and went down there the next afternoon.

It was an imposing place. Separate buildings grouped around a center courtyard, it appeared impregnable all by itself. As we got out of our car a wave of barks engulfed us, none of them too friendly. Maybe this had not been such a good idea. "Hello down there" the trainer shouted. We heard him long before we saw him. When he appeared a pair of matching shepherds was leading him down a hill, from one of the buildings.

"Right this way folks and I'll show you some of our trained dogs." He led us into a long brick building with very few windows. It was dark inside and when our eyes adjusted we could see about a dozen black and tan dobermans chained to the far wall. All appeared to be sitting at attention. We took our seats. The aura of discipline was all encompassing. We sat straighter and were speechless. On cue a side door opened and a dozen handlers walked in and went over to their respective charges. When the dogs were all on leads they were walked past us in a circle, then introduced by age and sex no names.

The entire group realigned itself against a back wall and our host whispered to us that the "intruder demonstration" was about to start. Another door opened and a man or what appeared to be a man came in. He was wearing a trench coat and a low brimmed hat that obscured his face. His right arm seemed grossly swollen or in some sort of cast and he held it close to his chest. He began at one end of the line and menaced each dog by extending his padded arm. All the dogs showed the correct response. They barked fiercely and lunged to the end of their leashes. That is all but one. I felt an instant rapport with this dog. She was obviously asking the same question we were. What if the burglar is not wearing this outfit? How can you tell the good guys from the bad without a scorecard?

The final part of the program was to be a demonstration of each dog's individual talents. They jumped through hoops, they fetched, and they obeyed unquestioningly. All but Fancy. When let off her lead she ran directly over to us and put her head in my lap. She looked up at me and that was all it took. The three of us knew instantly we were destined to be together.

Needless to say Fancy spent the rest of her life in the house. She took to family life quite well. Her first night she helped herself to an entire filet that was marinating on the counter. She slept in the bedroom. In the morning she would walk our daughter to the end of the lane and wait for the bus with her. She loved children and gratefully accepted unwanted lunches from her friend's lunchboxes.

Some months later my husband and I were taking a drive when we passed a pet shop. In the window, in the sun was a litter of all gold Shih Tzu. We parked, intending only to take a look. There were four darling moppets. Three were playing together and one sat all alone, disinterested. They were six months old, bred by the owner of the shop and were irresistible. Tigger, the individualist, became my valentines present.

He came home smelling of the pet shop. After a bath he was blown dry and what was left of his courage was blown away as well. He raced for the bedroom and spent the next three days under the bed. No amount of baby talk or coaxing would be enough to get him out. During these few days Fancy had taken up residence at the bedroom door, miffed at the unwanted interloper. I like to think that after watching us prostrate ourselves by the bed and make fools of ourselves vainly trying to encourage Tigger out she decided to take matter into her own paws. She waltzed into the bedroom, lay down on the side of the bed, snuffled a few doggie remarks to the furry shape in the corner and fell asleep. When she got up from her nap Tigger went with her. From that day on they were inseparable.

Fancy introduced Tigger to the joys of box lunches in the afternoon. She showed him the perimeters of the horse paddocks. She taught him the easy way into the vegetable garden, Where it was great fun to roll in the tilled dirt. He showed her how to race to the front door barking furiously at whoever rang the bell. Wherever you saw the one you saw the other. By mutual agreement neither was boss. Except for Fancy's brief infatuation with the neighboring Great Dane and Tigger's bizarre fascination with the cat they were never apart.

They were truly soul mates brought together by serendipitous circumstance.