Buddy Bosco 'Our Hero!'

This is such an unusual story about one of our Pet 24 members, Buddy, that we thought we just had to publish! His owners kindly adopted him from the Dogs Trust Centre in Kenilworth. Buddy's had many issues to deal with, probably from being mistreated in the past, but now thankfully he is with a loving family who are giving him a caring home-and he's earning his keep.... what a smart dog!

Buddy Bosco aged three, was homed with us on September 12th, 2013 and to bed him

in and get him into a routine in we walked him a lot. Unfortunately we found this

made him so tired he became very snappy and was falling asleep from a sitting

position. We were advised to ease back a little and we did so.

Buddy had many other problems, doorbells, church bells, ice cream vans, emergency

vehicles and running horses amongst many others. This was just from the television

and he was much more nervous outside on walks. As time passed he did improve but

not significantly. We did notice that he enjoyed jumping up into our camper so we

thought that a holiday trip to France would help us all bond together.

In August 2014,after obtaining his passport, we set off for a trip to France via Eurotunnel.

Buddy took it all in his stride and really enjoy his walks at the camp sites and

seaside towns that we visited. Sadly the weather was not kind to us and we decided

to return home earlier than scheduled.

This involved a trip to the Pet Passport Centre at Euro-tunnel. on a windy stormy day.

Due to the 24 hour waiting period after the visit to the French veterinarian we had

to occupy ourselves for 2 hours. The inclement weather forced us to sit tight in the

car park and a bit of buffeting, we thought from the wind, told us that it was better

to be here than on the open road.

After one and a half hours the weather broke, the sun came out and encouraged my

wife Jeannie to take Buddy for a short walk. I remained in the camper mentally

adding up the cost of taking Buddy abroad.

Upon his return Buddy would not approach the camper and kept gruffing like a grumpy old man! I got down from the

camper and remarked that his behaviour was not normal for him. Jeannie replied that he was agitated at something under the camper. Looking underneath I was taken aback to see two big white, wide open eyes of a young

man hanging to the underside of the camper.

An agitated barking Buddy, me banging on the side of the vehicle and an extremely agitated Jeannie quickly persuaded the

unwelcome hitch hiker to clamber from under the camper and walk away. In relief, a swift recalculation told me that Buddy had more than paid his dues.

Buddy? He quickly realised his hero status and milked it for all it was worth.

Since his return he has made steady progress but has some way to go! Buddy is an

intelligent, loving dog who still has a few hang ups after one year with us but he is

loving life. Our little hero!

Dogs Trust Kenilworth, Warwickshire