My 'mate' Ciccio!

It’s now a year and one week since Ciccio (aka ‘The Mutt’ and ‘Lunatic Dog’) came to live with me. These last thirteen months have been a constant joy for me and at the risk of boring you all to death I’ll tell you why!

Ciccio really shouldn’t even be alive – he was found by the Carabinieri in deep snow in a field and was so near to death he couldn’t even stand up. After a month at the local ‘canile’ (dogs home) when I got him, he was still so pitifully thin with his ribs sticking out of his poor little body….. He stuck to me like glue to a blanket for the first couple of months….

AS HE WAS!


It has taken me almost a year to get him to allow me to touch his legs and under his tummy – brushing him was a nightmare, he just cowered with fear. He still doesn’t know how to play with the usual ‘doggy toys’ despite having a collection that has come from as far afield as New Jersey and the UK….Even now he won’t chase a ball, or shake/squeeze the usual squeaky toys. He does like to play with your hands though, and a favourite pastime now (after a lot of patience) is sitting on the arm of my chair and pulling my hand until I hold his paw!!! At Christmas he was given a toy mouse which – when you pull its tail – runs across the floor. The first time we showed him he jumped up onto Sergio’s lap in fear and just shivered….can you believe that? He will now (after a couple of weeks) face up to this mouse – but he’s still very wary about actually touching it!

But for me the most wonderful result of him being here is his unfailing loyalty. I think that even if I was to beat him (and the nearest he’s come to that fate has been a smack with a plastic fly swat…..) I don’t doubt that he would accept it and still come back with his tail wagging. Unlike human beings, the average dog holds no grudges. Smack or chastise him and when you next open your arms and offer him the ‘olive branch’ he will be there….instinct tells him, I’m sure, that if he’s been ticked off or told ‘where it’s at’ it’s because his owner/friend cares! If they didn’t then they wouldn’t have bothered with him in the first place.

But all-in-all as a dog, and more importantly for me as a companion, he has come on in leaps and bounds. He has learned where he can (and can’t) go in the house….but he does still creep into my bedroom if he thinks I am asleep and try and reach me with his wet nose (bit difficult that – he’s too small). He doesn’t chew things that he shouldn’t – with the exception of one thin dining chair seat cushion (a ‘cheapie’ from the supermarket). This was on the chair he prefers to use to sleep on ‘through night’ – much safer it seems than his two proper dog beds (one on the upstairs landing and the other in the kitchen). He did leave me a few ‘little gifts’ around the house in the early days, but that is now a thing of the past (thank heavens).

AND NOW!!!



All in all I feel so pleased to have him with me. I’m sorry if it is boring when I speak of him, but he is my constant companion after all. I can’t (and don’t want to) pretend that he doesn’t exist - can I?