George – our Great Dane
We took George to Istanbul with us. Well, you do, don’t you? Take your Great Dane to Istanbul ?
All the best people do it.
The trouble was he was such a bloomin’ Member of the Family, and we couldn’t leave him in
kennels. We had only once tried that, when he was five or so, and because he growled a few times
(because he was upset at being left) the kennels lady wouldn’t go near him. Well, George was huge.
Even bearing in mind that he was a ‘Dane, he was huge. About 80 kilos. And ‘Danes, although such
soppy things, as everybody knows, can look jolly frightening when bearing their teeth. The result
was that poor George didn’t get walked or washed or even patted for a week.
That in turn meant that we had to take him to Istanbul with us. He was almost twelve years old by
then. Most ‘Danes live till they are seven or eight. The plan had originally been for me and Bruce to
fly to Cyprus to see if we wanted to buy a small property in which to spend the winter months. We
spend all summer in France, and that is great, and we spend time in the UK with the kids and
the Small People, but we needed somewhere for decent winter sunshine, as one does.
So we decided to drive. We bought a huge old gippo caravan, hitched it on to the back of our
Chrysler Grand Voyageur – and off we went.
France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece and then Turkey. And then ferry to
Cyprus, by which time George had died. Over ten thousand miles spread over five months. We
returned, a hundred adventures later, without a Cypriot property and without old George.
(I did this sketch when George was about …. about 3, I think.)
Click below for “The Man with Green Fingers”, a novel set in Cyprus and a UK best-seller.
Catherine Broughton is a novelist, a poet and an artist. She is widely travelled and writes regularly for magazines and blog sites. Her sketches are on her web site http://turquoisemoon.co.uk . Her books are available from Amazon and on Kindle, or can be ordered from several leading book stores.
If you enjoyed this item please share.
Catherine Broughton is a novelist, a poet and an artist. Her books are available as e-books on this site:-
https://payhip.com/b/tEva “A Call from France”
https://payhip.com/b/OTiQ “French Sand”
https://payhip.com/b/BLkF ”The Man with Green Fingers”
https://payhip.com/b/1Ghq “Saying Nothing”
They are also available on Amazon & Kindle, or can be ordered as paperbacks from most leading book stores and libraries.
