Handbags and Poobags: Tales of a Soho Boxer Dog (13 page)

But he still tries to act like youngster. He takes a bit longer to get going in the morning now but he still acts the clown. He still has a ‘funny five minutes’ when he zooms around the house madly for no reason. He can still bounce up and down like he is on springs. He still lies on his back with his limbs splayed inviting a rub or a kiss. He still sleeps on the bloody bed (but we have to lift him up onto it every night now because he finds it hard). He’s still my boy.

We have discussed what will probably happen in a few years’ time, Boxers don’t usually live as long as other breeds. We’re both a bit in denial, but we know the day that our merry foursome becomes a threesome is on the horizon.

By then it won’t just be Patrick and I devastated, but Stanley too. He’ll be old enough to have also fallen in love with the dog. It will be a difficult time for our young boy and we’ll have to help him learn about love and loss. But in the tradition of Basil it means he’ll still be teaching life lessons to those closest to him, right up until the end.

EPILOGUE:  THE BEAUTY OF BASIL

My dog is beautiful to me, loving, sensitive and full of personality. He loves me and he loves his family. He has been there at some of our happiest and proudest moments, he has witnessed me at my worst and seen some things I wish he hadn’t. But that simple love has never wavered.

He is responsible for the fact I spontaneously smile at every other dog I see in the street, affording me moments of involuntary joy every day.

He lives in our home, an autonomous, unknown, alien creature and yet a slave to our whims and the routine of our household. Always there, always in the background, never making a decision but the sole reason for so many decisions that are made.

He went from being the centre of our world, to an influence on the side-line. We went from taking hundreds of photos of Basil to thousands of photos of Stanley. But in nearly every one of those new pictures of our child you will see a white paw in the corner or a half a dog getting in the way as Basil, even if not centre stage, is still at the heart of the action.

As Stanley grows up to become more independent he will soon start pushing me away when I want a hug or a kiss. I can see him now as a surly eight year old muttering ‘
oh get off me mum’
. But I know Basil will always be up for a cuddle, he’ll never push me away, he only ever wants to get closer. 

As our human baby grows further from us into childhood, school and independence maybe I need to realise that our first ‘baby’ will always still be just that. Our baby. Well he still acts like a puppy for sure.

Come here boy… There’s a good dog.

(see, I told you he didn’t die)

NOT THE END

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I started writing this book many, many years ago. My family and I have been through a lot of changes during that time, so many that I constantly had to revise the words as we continued our journey through life. But the story will probably never really be told as our dog and child continue to grow and surprise us every day.

Maybe it could have been the book I continued to write forever, but I’m glad it is finally here for you to read. Thank you so much for taking the time. And besides, I really didn’t want to be writing anything that made anyone (least of all me) cry in the bathroom...

More thanks go to a great friend and editor Dan Wilson, who made many welcome improvements, cut the flab and taught me about apostrophes. I claim all mistakes for my own. 

Thank you to a wonderful Brighton artist and good friend Patrick O’Donnell (not my husband), who drew Basil so beautifully for the cover.  You can always come dine with me.

Photographer extraordinaire Julia Claxton pulled everything together and created a fabulous front cover.

I know Basil would like to extend the paw of thanks to Lucy Reilly and Angela Hire for all the help, love and walks, as would I. You’re part of the family!

Besides Patrick the other man in my life has to be my extraordinarily understanding business partner: Darren Whittaker. Our Company has been going longer than my marriage and I give thanks that he agreed to bringing a dog into our already mad world.

Before I had a dog I had friends, three of the best in fact. So I want to hail my life-long companions (who you will find in the pages of this book even if they are not named): Kate Duce, Kate Blagden and Tony Hannan.

Of course, I want to give all my love and thanks to the two humans I share my home with: Patrick and Stanley. Thank you for choosing me, I wish I deserved you. 

And finally a big THANK YOU to all of the beautiful dogs out there, you all make the world a better place. But I’ll save the biggest of all for the one who makes
my
world a better place, the one and only Basil.

You’re better than a chinchilla.

Alice Wright, 2012

LOOK AT THE BRUISE ON MY ARM!

For updates and more photos of Basil have a look at our Facebook page:

facebook.com/handbagsandpoobags

‘
Handbags and Poobags: Tales of a Soho Boxer Dog’

First published in 2012 by Alice Wright

Copyright © Alice Can’t Cook Publishing 2012

The moral right of the author has been asserted.
 

Line from "
Do not go gentle into that good night
"
by Dylan Thomas,
originally published in 1951, Botteghe Oscure

Original artwork by Patrick O’Donnell
www.patrick-odonnell.co.uk
Cover artwork by Julia Claxton
http://photography.juliaclaxton.net

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be circulated in any form other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.