Thrown Away Child by Louise Allen

Author:Louise Allen [Allen, Louise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK

12

A Dog’s Life

We always had dogs and cats. Barbara was keen on particular breeds of dog, such as Poodles, Shih Tzus and Tibetan Terriers, although she often got crossbreeds as well as pedigrees. She liked driving around the countryside to find puppies, and sometimes chickens. She scoured the papers for special offers and sometimes we went to see breeders and farms, as she was very particular about what she bought. Barbara always liked babies, puppies and kittens, as well as chicks. Just like her weird doll collection, which she adored, she liked things that were small and helpless but hated them the minute they got a bit bigger and had a mind of their own.

During my early years we had many dogs, but they never seemed to live very long. There was Rover, Topsy, Spot, Milo, Misty, Scruff, Kizzy and so on. She often had high-maintenance dogs with topknots and ponytails or special coats. She would buy expensive brushes and shampoos, little coats and leads. She probably spent more on the dogs than she ever spent on me. She would take them for training, and then lose interest halfway through. Typically she was keen for a while, when they were tiny, and would carry them around like babies, put them on her lap and dote on them all the time. Then suddenly she would lose interest. Something would trigger her off. After that she would be very rough and tough with them. She would pull them this way and that on their choker leads till they bled, like poor old Topsy, or she would smack and kick them, and even starve them, just like me. They were always being punished for something. And then they were gone and the doggie cycle would start all over again.

When I was about ten, going on eleven, she had Spot – a white Jack Russell with a black spot over one eye – who came after Topsy, who had died very suddenly. He was still only a puppy and keen on biting shoes and slippers, like all puppies do. I thought he was really cute, if a bit yappy. He had nice brown eyes, sticky-up ears and white fur. I liked stroking him and he wagged his tail with a lot of energy and affection.

Barbara nearly always got into a really black mood on Sundays. Everyone kept out of the way and Ian hid in the garage, as usual. She was angry and resentful about cooking and let everyone know it. As I got older I offered to help but she wanted to keep me out. ‘You’ll only mess things up,’ she said.

This particular Sunday she was in a blinding rage. I had no idea what was the matter with her. We were all treading round her like she was a hand grenade. She was in the middle of preparing the food when, all of a sudden, things started flying out into the garden, like they often did. I could hear her saying, ‘I’m bloody well fed up with all this,’ and, ‘I hate my life,’ as I heard chopping sounds.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.