The casual conversation which led to our Nanook adventure.
‘So, what do you think?’
I peered up from the Science & technology section of the Economist with a quizzical look. Does my wife really want to know about the work Sony and LG are doing to improve the sound from flat screen TVs by using actuators to vibrate the screen, so sound is projected directly to the viewer? Her body language was becoming more animated, with hands on her hips and an energy that is demanding eye contact. From her perspective, I should clearly be on the ball and know exactly what is at issue. My mind starts to race, could we be about to embark on another inquisition as to which male member of the household had peed without the required aim and splattered the bathroom floor? If this is the case, which of our two sons should I deflect the blame to, our 15-year-old or the 17-year-old?
‘About getting a dog!’
On the surface, this is a “keeping up with the Joneses’” situation. Some close friends just announced that they are getting a Maltipoo, a cross between a Maltese and a Poodle. The reality is somewhat different, everyone has distractions, and one of mine is dreaming about getting a rescue dog. As a result, on most days I will have a quick browse of the local dog rescue, Last Chance Animal Rescue, which really does live up to its name by having a motley crew of animals, often saved from the Welsh pounds as they wait for their death row sentence. I have, however, been hesitant to take the plunge since we both have jobs in the City and I grew up with the ethos that dogs require three walks per day.
My wife, Maryline, put on her Project Management voice of enthusiastic, determination, an approach that means she almost invariable gets her way as she directs technology groups and business teams to her solution, ‘Can you at least call the local Samoyed breeder!’
If we are going to get a dog, it has to be a Samoyed according to Maryline. They are certainly white bundles of cuteness as puppies and we recently got to play with one. Growing up I had two dogs, a Samoyed when I was a toddler and a Golden Retriever as a teenager. The majority of dog owners stick with same breed, so while getting a Samoyed would support this statistic, I am by no means fixated on a particular breed, I like a wide assortment of dogs. One of my favourites, was a neighbour’s border collie, Mitty, who was saved from the earlier mentioned rescue. When our boys were toddlers, we could pop around to the neighbours and take her out for a daily walk at will. She was lovely, alert, gentle, and responsive. Apart from coming from Wales, her background was unknown, but it would not take much detective work to come up with a plausible past. She was highly trained, with more enthusiasm than capability given that she would have to take periodic breathers from her game of fetch. Rod, her owner, successfully supplemented her diet so her weak hips did not seem to overly infringe on her long and full life. Realistically she was a failed farm dog that faced some brutalness in her early life which only, very occasionally, became apparent. Rod was working around the house and picked up a metal chain, an action that had Mitty instantly quivering.
There were plenty of other dogs over the years. At the various stables where I rode ponies as a child, there were Dobermans, Jack Russell Terriers and Whippets. It doesn’t take you long to realise that terriers offer a big dog capability in a small package, that Dobermans can be sweet with kids and whippets, while sometimes having some initial skittishness, are fun and cheeky. A family friend had a series of small dogs, including a Pug and Lhasa Apso, which provided plenty of fun. As most dog obsessed kids do, I had memorised a book on dog breeds so was a bit miffed when, many years ago, I saw a black, curly haired puppy and, probably somewhat pompously, complimented the woman on her Portuguese Water Dog, only to be told that it was a Labradoodle. A what? Needless to say, we all now know what a Labradoodle is given the popularity of poodle crosses.
A Samoyed is certainly a breed that I am not against. It is, after all, designated as a Category 1 breed by The Kennel Club which means there are “no points of concern.” There was, however, one issue, where do you find a four-legged, hypoallergenic, white, powder puff in lockdown? Newspapers had been full of stories on the high demand for puppies, skyrocketing prices. Moreover, dog thefts have become such a concern that the UK government has launched a Pet Theft Taskforce.
The Kennel Club listed seven assured breeders across the UK when I started my search. Fortunately, the longest serving breeder on the list was based in the same town as us and I had seen a couple of Samoyeds in a lovely rose garden near our house so I was pretty certain I knew where the breeder lived. As promised to my wife, I took a mid-morning break on the Monday to make the phone call to the breeder with a grand double-barrelled last name. It was not a short call. The breeder, Tove, is a trained geologist, in her late 70s at the time, who is highly intelligent and impressively fluent on social media. While Tove could, quite understandably, not conjure up a puppy immediately for us she did point us in the right direction and four months later Nanook was running around our garden.
Fidelia Nanook 