He was a little bundle of fluff that fitted into your cupped hands without much peeping out and his tail had a funny kink where it had been damaged.
The children took him to their home - but he couldn't stay there permanently as they already had dogs. Their parents took Bobby to Pat knowing that she had recently lost her dog Sammy. Pat was not planning to have another dog as she was herself very ill, but she agreed to look after Bobby overnight - just until he could be taken to an animal shelter. Of course one night was enough!
Bobby and Pat looked after each other for the next year. For a start they went walking most days with a Rottweiler and a very large German Shepherd for company and Bobby grew up not realising that he was any smaller than either of them. As Pat became more and more ill Bobby's main duty was snuggling on her lap and he relied upon a succession of dog walkers to take him out each day.
In December 2002 we inherited Bobby and he came to live with us in Essex. He already knew his new home from his many 'holidays' there and he settled in instantly.
In February 2003 we started obedience training for both Bobby and myself (as I had never cared for a dog before). We progressed reasonably and Bobby earned his silver certificate in the Kennel Club Good Citizen Dog Scheme. He would probably have passed his gold had I not let him down by having a mishap that put me out of dog walking for several months - I'm sure he would have got it if another opportunity had arisen.
In 2004 Bob got his passport allowing him to travel with us to France. The timing was such that we missed the summer but we headed off for his first trip abroad in the October. His passport gave him an official birthday of 20th May 2001 as the vet needed to put something in there.
From the time that Bobby came to live with us it seems that he appeared in most of our photographs which is why we could put together this gallery so easily (indeed working out what to leave out was the hard bit). The same applied to each of our visitors - they often didn't realise it until they got home but their cameras were mainly filled with pictures of him.
Follow the rest of his story in the yearly roundups.
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