Of me being born in London, ending up in Merlin, Oregon.
I was reflecting last weekend about how Jean and I ended up in Merlin.
We live in a fabulous property, a single-storey wooden house, on thirteen acres.
If I had not decided to come to California in 2007, I would still be in England (assuming I would still be alive).
In the Summer of 2007, I stayed with Dan, a friend of many years. I was with Dan for a month and near the end of that holiday, Dan’s sister, Suzanne called by and asked me what I was doing for Christmas. I replied, that I did not have a clue. Su then asked me to visit San Carlos, Mexico, where she and her husband, Don, were living.
Thus in December, 2007, I went out to San Carlos and happened to meet Jean. Jean and I fell in love. Jean’s husband had died in 2005. Jean had twenty-three ex-rescue dogs. In 2008 I went out with my GSD, Pharaoh, to live with Jean and her dogs (and cats). In 2010 we came North to Payson, Arizona, with sixteen dogs, seven cats, and we were married.
Coincidentally, Jean was born in North London, some twenty-six miles from where I was born!
My Pharaoh
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Mr and Mrs Handover
In 2012, we came West to Merlin, Oregon, and we purchased a property that the previous owner had lost to their bank.
That’s my story – what are the odds of it happening!
I was looking through posts from a few years ago and came across ‘Dogs – their deep ties to man” and thought it would be a grand post to publish again.
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Dogs – their deep ties to man!
It’s impossible not to admire, respect and love a dog
(First published on the 4th August, 2009but it relates to an event even before I left the United Kingdom. I met Jean in December, 2007 and Pharaoh and me travelled out to Mexico a year later.)
An incident last night reminded me of the complexity of the dog’s mind. It has not been the first time this has happened.
Our 6 year-old German Shepherd dog, Pharaoh, was given a bone as a treat during the previous day and, as sometimes happens, it was a bit tough on his stomach. So at around 1.30 am, I was woken up. Nothing so special about that. But reflect on how this happened.
1.30 am is the part of night where, hopefully, we are in that very deep phase of sleep. How then does Pharaoh calculate the best way of awakening me so that he can be let out into the yard? One might consider the various options:
– He barks
– He paws at the bed
– He jumps on the bed
– He scratches at the door
and so on.
What Pharaoh did (and has done before, so this is a calculated behaviour) is very gently put his damp nose onto the side of my face, just below my left ear, which was the part of my face nearest to the edge of the bed. It woke me so gently from my deep sleep but made me immediately aware (as a parent is when their young child cries) that Pharaoh required urgent attention.
A moment later he was standing by the bedroom door, letting out that soft, quiet whine that is only used when he needs to use the yard. Within seconds his collar and lead were on and he was outside doing what nature was prompting him.
Pharaoh resting on an English lawn
No big deal but it stayed with me this morning as I reflected on the empathetic way that Pharaoh had communicated with me during the night.
Dogs sensitivity to the world around them is a powerful reminder that the less we focus in on ourselves the more we learn.
Seeing how many approved of the photos of Pharaoh, it seemed to me that I should provide photos of German Shepherd dogs; there are plenty of them.
But before that many congratulations to the new King of the United Kingdom, King Charles III, or as Wikipedia put it:
The coronation of Charles III and his wife, Camilla, as king and queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms took place on 6 May 2023, at Westminster Abbey. Charles acceded to the throne on 8 September 2022, upon the death of his mother, Elizabeth II.
Now to the dogs!
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Wonderful dogs! And just a reminder of Pharaoh to play us out:
(This post was drafted back in 2020 and, for whatever reason, never got published, until today! Pharaoh, of course, is no longer with us)
Years ago if I was ever to own a dog, it had to be one breed and one breed only: a German Shepherd Dog.
The reason for this was that back in 1955 my father and mother looked after a German Shepherd dog called Boy. Boy belonged to a lovely couple, Maurice and Marie Davies. They were in the process of taking over a new Public House (Pub); the Jack & Jill in Coulsdon, Surrey. My father had been the architect of the Jack & Jill.
Jack & Jill, Longlands Avenue, Coulsdon, Surrey
As publicans have a tough time taking holidays, it was agreed that the move from their old pub to the Jack & Jill represented a brilliant opportunity to have that vacation. My parents offered to look after Boy for the 6 weeks that Maurice and Marie were going to be away.
Boy was the most gentle loveable dog one could imagine and I quickly became devoted to him; I was 11 years old at the time. So when years later it seemed the right time to have a dog, there was no question about the breed. Boy’s memory lived on all those years, and, as this post reveals, still does!
Pharaoh was born June 3rd, 2003 at Jutone Kennels up at Bovey Tracy, Devon, on the edge of Dartmoor. As the home page of the Jutone website pronounces,
The Kennel was established in 1964 and it has always been the aim to breed the best German Shepherd Dogs for type and temperament. To this end the very finest German bloodlines are used to continue a modern breeding programme.
and elsewhere on that website one learns:
Jutone was established by Tony Trant who was joined by Sandra Tucker in 1976. Sandra continues to run Jutone since Tony passed away in 2004. Both Tony and Sandra qualified as Championship Show judges and Sandra continues to judge regularly. Sandra is the Secretary and a Life Member of the German Shepherd Dog Club of Devon.
Tony Trant
Turning to Pharaoh, here are a few more pictures over the years.
Pharaoh, nine months old.
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One year old: June 3rd 2004.
The next picture of Pharaoh requires a little background information.
For many years I was a private pilot and in later days had the pleasure, the huge pleasure I must say, of flying a Piper Super Cub which is a group-owned aircraft based at Watchford Farm in South Devon. The aircraft, a Piper PA-18-135 Super Cub, was originally supplied to the Dutch Air Force in 1954 and was permitted by the British CAA to carry her original military markings including her Dutch military registration, R-151, although there was a British registration, G-BIYR, ‘underneath’ the Dutch R-151. (I wrote more fully about the history of the aircraft on Learning from Dogsback in August 2009.)
Piper Cub R151
Anyway, every time I went to the airfield with Pharaoh he always tried to climb into the cockpit. So one day, I decided to see if he would sit in the rear seat and be strapped in. Absolutely no problem with that!
My idea had been to fly a gentle circuit in the aircraft. First I did some taxying around the large grass airfield that is Watchford to see how Pharaoh reacted. He was perfectly behaved.
Then I thought long and hard about taking Pharaoh for a flight. In the Cub there is no autopilot so if Pharaoh struggled, or worse, it would have been almost impossible to fly the aircraft and cope with Pharaoh. So, in the end, I abandoned taking him for a flight. The chances are that it would have been fine. But if something had gone wrong, the outcome just didn’t bear thinking about.
So we ended up motoring for 30 minutes all around the airfield which, as the next picture shows, met with doggie approval. The date was July 2006.
That was fun, Dad!
What a dear dog he has been over all the years!
As if to reinforce the fabulous dog he still is, yesterday it was almost as though he knew he had to show how youthful he still was.
Because, when I took his group of dogs out around 7.30am armed with my camera, Pharaoh was brimming over with energy.
First up was a swim in the pond.
Ah, an early birthday dip! Bliss!
Then in a way he has not done before, Pharaoh wanted to play ‘King of my Island’, which is in the middle of the pond.
Halt! Who goes there!
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This is my island! So there!
Then a while later, when back on dry land, so to speak, it was time to dry off in the morning sunshine.
Actually, this isn’t such a bad life!
Long may he have an enjoyable and comfortable life.
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This was written quite obviously before Pharaoh died. He is still on the home page of this blog.
Beloved Pharaoh. Born: June 3rd., 2003 – Died: June 19th., 2017. A very special dog that will never be forgotten.
Once again taken from Unsplashapart from the last two photographs.
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My love for dogs in general and the German Shepherd in particular goes back to 1955 when I was 10 years old. My father offered to look after a GSD called Boy. Boy belonged to a lovely couple, Maurice and Marie Davies. They were in the process of taking over a new Public House (Pub); the Jack & Jill in Coulsdon, Surrey. My father had been the architect of the Jack & Jill. Boy quickly bonded with me and that love for the dog never left me.
Beloved Pharaoh. Born: June 3rd., 2003 – Died: June 19th., 2017. A very special dog that will never be forgotten.
Pharaoh meeting Cleo, the year being 2012.
Cleo will be eleven on the 25th January, 2023. Where did the years go?
Today we focus exclusively on German Shepherds, again courtesy of a section on Unsplash.
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This last one looks so much like Pharaoh, the GSD that came with me in 2008 from Devon to Mexico when Jeannie and I wanted to be together. So my last photo is of Pharaoh.
My beloved Pharaoh. Born the 3rd June, 2003 – died 19th June, 2017.
Where did it all go? That is: Life! Or more accurately my life.
I was born in Acton, London before the end of WWII. I am in my 77th year. Life these days seems to be more or less a paradox.
There are so many challenges at the moment. Not just in the USA nor in the UK but globally. We love where we live here in rural Merlin but we are already in the third year of below normal rainfall.
A view of the sunrise from taken from our property.
The contradictions in terms of our life locally and the global scene are huge. This is all leading to me quoting extracts from a recent George Monbiot article. The article starts by saying: “On both sides of the Atlantic, powerful interests seem determined to trigger the collapse of life on Earth. Why?“
Sexton Mountain last winter. Again photo taken from our property.
A little later on in Geo. Monbiot’s article, he writes: “When I began work as an environmental journalist in 1985, I knew I would struggle against people with a financial interest in destructive practices. But I never imagined that we would one day confront what appears to be an ideological commitment to destroying life on Earth. The UK government and the US supreme court look as if they are willing the destruction of our life support systems.“
Because it does seem as though the political leaders are not taking the future of the planet seriously. As Patrice Ayme concluded recently in a remark to that post: “Biden ought to declare a climate emergency.” But it won’t happen!
(Well I may stand corrected. Yesterday it was widely reported, and I chose Renewable Energy: “The clean energy industry celebrated a moment on August 7 that would have seemed impossible just a few weeks earlier: The Senate passed a budget measure that includes the largest investments in clean energy and climate change in U.S. history.“)
Every morning when I go down to feed our two ex-rescue horses I also feed the wild deer. I have been doing it for many years. Long enough that a young buck has turned into an adult and comes within a few feet of me.
It never ceases to delight.
The contradiction between me going every morning down to the stable area and feeding the horses and the wild deer, and the outcome for the planet is beyond words. In a very real way it is incomprehensible.
Again, Geo. Monbiot writes: “All this might seem incomprehensible. Why would anyone want to trash the living world? Surely even billionaires want a habitable and beautiful planet? Don’t they like snorkelling on coral reefs, salmon fishing in pristine rivers, skiing on snowy mountains? We suffer from a deep incomprehension of why such people act as they do. We fail to distinguish preferences from interests, and interests from power. It is hard for those of us who have no desire for power over others to understand people who do. So we are baffled by the decisions they make, and attribute them to other, improbable causes. Because we do not understand them, we are the more easily manipulated.”
Under our apple tree!
It really is a paradox! And who knows the outcome. All I can say is that, despite me being the age I am, I would not want to be any younger and aware that soon one would be facing the global changes full on.
Stacked cumulus clouds to the North-East.
More words from Geo. Monbiot: “Since 1985, I’ve been told we don’t have time to change the system: we should concentrate only on single issues. But we’ve never had time not to change the system. In fact, because of the way in which social attitudes can suddenly tip, system change can happen much faster than incrementalism. Until we change our political systems, making it impossible for the rich to buy the decisions they want, we will lose not only individual cases. We will lose everything.”
I have no idea of the global changes that are afoot and how they will affect us in Merlin. Indeed, I have no idea how long I have to live.
Jean and I met in December, 2007. We met in Mexico but Jean was also born in London, just a few years after me. How’s that for chance!
Jean’s American husband had died in 2005. She was rescuing dogs off the streets, sorting them out, and finding homes for them, mainly in Arizona.
Jean and me in San Carlos, Mexico.
I went out to Mexico with Pharaoh in 2008. With a one-way ticket!
Pharaoh digging in the sand in Mexico.
However of one thing I am sure. Since that meeting in December, 2007 life has been as good as it comes. I have never been happier.
Learning from Dogs 