Journey's End

Sorry for the slight delay, Buster Fans, as I know you're dying to know the next bit of my story. If I remember right, Mum, sister Poppy and I had just set off to find our dads, who lived on a small farm called "Xerika".....

WARNING: This next bit is very sad so if you're easily upset, you might want to skip to the next part.

Poppy and I were less than two months old when we set off with Mum to find “Xerika” and even though it was only a couple of miles, it seemed like an epic journey for our short little legs. It was hot too and Pops and I kept wanting to sit down and rest but Mum kept pushing us on. She seemed so excited about introducing us to our dads.

(Poppy wanted me to add ‘and vice versa’ here but I’ve no idea what she’s on about so I’ve left it out.)

Eventually, we reached the farm where our dads Sammy and Rory lived. Pops and I were so knackered, we just collapsed in the shade. Moments later, we were mobbed by three hooligan dogs who we discovered later were Ziggy, Zaira and Gelert.

Mum went off to look for Sammy and Rory, leaving us to the mercy of these huge (to us) dogs who were clearly intent on playing with us.

Poppy and I dozed in the shade and totally ignored them. Then Mum came back looking distraught. (Pops gave me that last word and I don’t know if it sums up the way Mum looked but I’ll risk it.)

“Where are they?” she panted, looking at the other three.

“Where’s who?” said Gelert.

“Sammy and Rory. Where are they?”

Poppy and I watched as Ziggy, Zaira and Gelert looked down at their paws.

“Well?” Mum was getting impatient.

Very slowly, Ziggy raised his head and looked into Mum’s eyes. “They’re not here now.”

“Not here? Well, where are they then?”

“They stopped living. I’m sorry.”

Mum held his gaze for a few seconds and then wandered off on her own.

Poppy and I were too young to understand what was going on at the time, but Mum explained to us what had happened when we were a bit more grown up.

Apparently, about the same time they helped Mum make Poppy and I, Sammy and Rory kept escaping from the farm and generally making mischief. Then, late one night just before Ziggy’s bedtime, he discovered Rory lying just inside the farm gate. He wasn’t living.

In Greece, where we live, there are bad humes who put poisoned food out for foxes to protect their chickens and it seems that Rory ate some and stopped living soon after. Sammy was never seen again and the same thing probably happened to him but he never made it back to the farm. (Petros, our Dog Doc, gets very angry about this sort of thing but I’ll tell you more about him another time.)

The humes dug a big hole, put Rory in it and then covered him up. Ziggy says he saw water coming out of the humes’ eyes but none of us knows why that would happen.

Mum hardly spoke or ate for days after she heard what had happened to our dads but she’s a bit better now. Ziggy showed her the place where the humes put Rory after he stopped living. She goes there sometimes on her own and sits quietly.

Poppy and I are now six months old so we understand a bit more about stuff. It seems there are good humes and bad humes. Thank Dog, we seem to have ended up with some good ones.

It would have been great to have met our dads but they stopped living even before Poppy and I started living. We’ve heard lots of stories about Sammy and Rory from Mum and Ziggy and I’ll tell you some of them one day. I'll also show you some photos of them.

Mum says I should get to bed now as it’s late but I just feel like barking at something.