Dog Squad Blog – The Neighbour Pack

This week my friend Michelle Neighbour tells us about her love of animals and the ever expandingNeighbour pack.

As a massive animal loverI’d lost my beloved dog Holly in 2006 when she was twelve. In 2010 Holly’s beloved sister Sammie died at the grand old age of sixteen. I swore never to have another pet. I’d had the dogs before having children and thought it was unfair to have pets when I had young children to look after.

That plan didn’t last long.

Whilst based in Germany my children and I decided to get a kitten, so in 2012 Luna became part of the family. We picked this name as we were Harry Potter fans and one of the characters was quiet and subdued, much like this lovely kitten.

However, we discovered that Luna wasn’t a kitten, she was the mum. I went to view the kittens and took pity on Luna as at eleven months old she’d had her first set of kittens. I took mum and kittens that day… the owners weren’t bothered about poor Luna. I had Trixie and a friend took her sister Lily. Trixie was so called as she had a bit of a devilish streak in her… much like the character Bellatrix Lestrange in, yes you’ve guessed it, Harry Potter.

I left the army in December 2013 and moved back to the UK, to West London.

I know this is a dog squad blog, so I’m getting to the dogs.

In 2015 I couldn’t stand it any longer. I wanted a dog and l wanted one now. So one weekend, on a whim, I drove up to Bolton and whilst stuck in the infamous M6 traffic jam, scrolled through Facebook and found him… By Sunday, Blue the Chorkie (Chihuahua/Yorkshire Terrier Cross) had joined the family, so called as he had a blue eye.

After a week or two, maybe a bit longer, I felt bad that Blue was alone during the day. I spoke to the family of Blue’s mum and dad and found out that Blue’s brother had been returned to them. It was fate. That weekend I drove up north again.

When trying to choose a name for the newest member of the pack my daughter decided that he looked like a chocolate chip cookie, and so Chip was named.

Our pack was now complete. Two dogs and two cats… yeah right.

In 2017 I was scrolling through Facebook (damn social media) and saw that a family had a puppy and that their other dog was being horrible to it. I drove straight over and picked up the cute little bundle who they’d named Bobby.

I’ve heard it’s bad luck to change an animal’s name but didn’t really want a dog that sounded like it was named after an uncle. So, in line with our love of Harry Potter and the fact it sounded similar, Dobby, a Jack Russell Terrier, became part of The Neighbour Pack.

So that’s it. Our pack is complete, and we’re definitely stopping there. Well, at least for now.

Michelle completed the London Marathon last month and raised money for an animal sanctuary. If you’re feeling generous, there’s still time to donate and here’s the link. https://www.everyclick.com/hillsideanimalsanctuary-mneighbour?fbclid=IwAR2Owp0ysi-2yqBTPt-V8Nwv7YNX7zvdI91GUXXv34ZS2PnmYH8MvnIYNZQ