Thomas Redmond and family would like to thank Alison, Lowisa and Nikita for entrusting Bruce - Ch. Teirwgwyn Son Of A Gun At Meilow - to holiday with us in Ireland. It was both an honour and a privilege to spend time with this great Bull Terrier. Bruce and Zoe Redmond enjoying their day out.
UPC Tests. Here’s something that might interest a few people, perhaps more those who are within reasonable distance of the Cheshire area. Linda Bland has very kindly passed on some information that she was herself given, and it relates to an Animal centre based in Tarporley, Cheshire called Pinmoore Animal Laboratory Services Ltd. According to the company’s website, they do Urine Protein Creatinine tests for just £10, which although I can’t personally vouch for them, - does appear to be a good deal for people of the Bull Terrier breed. Most readers will already be aware of the significance of a UPC reading, but for those who aren’t I’d recommend popping along to the Bull Terrier Health UK website – or the Notts & Derby District BTC website – both of whom give a very good general overview of why a UPC reading is very important to the breed. Details of all relevant sites are as follows: Pinmoore Animal Laboratory: www.palsvetlab.co.uk/ Bull Terrier Health UK: http://bullterriershealthuk. homestead.com/kidneydisease.html NDDBTC: www.bullterriers.co.uk/html/kidneys.html Happier Times ... Annabel with Alfie Bull Terrier Attack … After Alfie, another very unfortunate story involving a Bull Terrier, or at least a dog being described as a Bull Terrier. According to a brief little snippet in Dog World (August 21st), two Norfolk Terriers were said to have been attacked by a Bull Terrier. The two dogs were bitten quite badly apparently and the report suggests that it took a number of bystanders to drag the Bull Terrier away from them. Thankfully after treatment both dogs are recovering, as is their owner who sustained minor injuries. Oddly enough, although the Bull Terrier was found to have been micro-chipped, those listed as his owners denied that he belonged to them and as such the decision was taken to put the dog to sleep. Details are obviously very sparse, but this seems a strange one. A Bull Terrier wandering around on his own attacks two other dogs, he isn’t owned by those he’s registered to, and he ends up dead. Fair enough he could have been an absolute lunatic, but many Bull Terriers do not mix with other dogs and they have been known to engage in the odd battle here and there - it seems a very harsh and brutal reaction to end his life? From Agony to Ecstasy and back for Alfie and Annabel. may be wrong, but I think this is the first time that I have ever had to re-write a piece after circumstances within it have altered I so dramatically. It concerns a young Bull Terrier from Sunderland called Alfie, and let’s just say both he and his owner have really been through a torrid time of late. Alfie went missing whilst out walking during a downpour with his owner Annabel Nielson, and despite her frantic attempts over the course of several hours, - she could not find Alfie anywhere. Annabel states ‘In desperation I started leafleting cars in local shopping centres, homes and car parks, put adverts in local papers, put posters up all over the area, and registered him on various missing dog websites’. Yet despite this still no sign of Alfie after a further week of searching high and low. Annabel adds, ‘I didn’t think he was coming home and I certainly didn’t think I would get him back’. Bully Bits But after eight agonising days searching for Alfie, Annabel received a call from a local fisherman called Wheatley Smith, who said he, his son and a friend had spotted Alfie stranded on some rocks in the River Wear. Annabel immediately called the Fire Brigade to the scene while in the meantime Mr Smith tried to get Alfie to safety. He said, ‘I saw the dog upstream on the opposite side of the river. I was pretty much born on these river banks and lived there as I was growing up so I know them well. I tried to get down the bank to him but because it was so wet all the ground crumbled away. So I had to grab hold of some foliage and ended up sliding down. When I got there he wasn’t happy and he couldn’t see properly, so I tried to calm him down – which he did eventually just as his owner arrived, he was understandably very pleased to see her!’ Minutes later the Fire crew arrived and winched Alfie to safety, from a spot ironically just 100 metres from where he went missing. Wheatley adds, ‘He’s a miracle dog because the water levels over the eight days he was missing were very bad’. As for Alfie himself, eight days stranded in and around the River Wear without food had taken its toll. He emerged well over a stone in weight lighter, had several cuts around his chest and had worn his feet and nails to stumps trying to clamber to safety, but still in seemingly much better condition than he could have been under the circumstances. Originally that was the end of the story, a happy ending where despite his ordeal Alfie was safe and on the mend - as Annabel states ‘I really didn’t think I was ever going to get Alfie home alive’. Sadly the happy ending was short lived as just a week or so later Alfie became unwell and was taken to the vets, who treated him with antivomit medication. This however made no difference to Alfie’s condition, indeed his health deteriorated rapidly over the course of the following days and he very sadly died. Later tests showed he had swallowed a foreign body that had torn his intestines - leading to a serious case of peritonitis. A distraught Annabel said - ‘We are just devastated beyond words, it was such a shock. The support we had from people when we were searching was fantastic, and just as much when he returned home - he really was our little Angel of the North’. It’s difficult to know exactly what Alfie has endured over those eight desperate days fighting for survival in the River Wear, but there is no doubt he typifies the Bull Terrier spirit to a tee, - as we know the breed is renowned for its resilience, and he obviously has it by the truckload. Sadly he’s endured just that bit too much than he could withstand, what a great shame for both him and his owner. Bull Terrier Monthly Issue 90 - Page 11
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