Nell was born on April 23rd, 2010, in the county of Essex and shared her birthday with Shakespeare. Little is known of her parentage or siblings but, judging by a DNA test done in later life, it is unlikely that either parent were anything but mixed breeds themselves. The DNA test showed the following results: American Bulldog (expected) 38%, American Staffordshire Terrier (no surprise) 25%, Boston Terrier (unexpected) 12%, Border Collie (very unexpected) 12.5% leaving the remaining 12.5% as ‘other’.
We know that her first human family had young children and suspect there might have been a single parent involved. Judging by the energy she still had at the time of her second adoption at 10 months old, she probably proved too much for that family. Some dogs are tied up outside Battersea Dogs Home in the evening and are taken in the next day but Nell was given up in person. This meant there was a little information about her history which included a line that was overlooked by her adopting humans – ‘Nell ate through a wall’!!
Her eventual owners arrived at Battersea Dogs Home on a Sunday morning (the 23rd January – which would be forever named as ‘family day’ thereafter) with absolutely no intention of coming away with a dog at all. They had just been rejected outright by another shelter the day before so simply thought they’d get the ‘lay of the land’ at Battersea. Battersea had a kind of ‘dating service’ system which matches potential owners with dogs and this led to only a couple of ‘matches’. One of them looked promising to the humans which was a 6 year old American Bull Dog called ‘Red’. You are given a ‘kennel’ number and told to toddle off and have a look at your potential new family member. This they duly did but when they got there, the kennel was empty. This caused a bit of consternation but soon a young ‘rehomer’ from Battersea came to help. She informed the people that Red had just been admitted to the clinic but that there was a dog just coming out of the clinic and would they like to see her? Nell was produced and quickly won the heart of at least one of the humans while the other always maintained that she had reservations on that first day.
Battersea Dos Home at that time had a lot on their website about the complicated procedure of actually getting a dog which included a home visit. Therefore, nothing was more surprising to the humans when they were told they could take her straight away. In retrospect, one wonders if Battersea were keen on getting this one out sooner rather than later. Throughout her life, Nell was always ready to acclimatise to a new situation and was rarely phased by a change of circumstances. Though surprising to her new owners at the time, it was entirely in character that a few hours after her release from Battersea, she was asleep in front of the fire without a care in the world.
The same could not be said of her owners, especially in those first few weeks, as they rushed around trying to figure out how they were actually going to look after this new family member. They were totally unprepared in every way and in fact had only come up with the idea of getting a dog after looking after a flat-coated retriever of heavenly disposition. It would never have occurred to that dog, for instance, to have stolen and eaten an entire cheese plate left, fool hardily, on the coffee table on that first weekend!
This brings me to one of Nell’s key traits – her love of food. Many dogs are food motivated which is often a good negotiation chip between dogs and humans. ‘I’ll give you a treat if you can do this one thing.’ Nell understood this contract completely and was excellent at gaming any given situation to get the food she wanted for the least effort. That being said, given the opportunity, she would go after food with no reciprocal advantage to her humans. One time a wonderful apple pie was made and a single piece eaten. It was then left enticingly on the kitchen counter. Her owners had no idea she could jump that high from a standing start and the noise of the breaking dish as it eventually hit the floor brought a human rushing into the kitchen only to find the last scraps being polished off. Nell was berated severely but was always one to generously forgive herself for any infractions.
One time, the only traces of two uncooked steaks ready to go onto the barbecue were two moist patches where they had been resting on a breadboard. The speed of this particular heist was so astonishing that for years, the humans wondered how it could have been pulled off as if it were a magic trick from Houdini.
Humans are often told that dogs should never be fed chicken bones for fear that the bones might splinter in their throats. Therefore, it was somewhat of an embarrassment to the humans when asked how many chicken bones she had eaten by the telephone veterinarian, on that fateful afternoon, and the answer had to be….’well, all of them.’ No harm came to Nell on that occasion.
The list of incidents went on and on from pub chairs being knocked over for a half-eaten chip to a whole hot dog in the hand of a poor human standing in front of Nell’s owner in the hot dog stand queue one day. Over time, Nell’s humans adapted their behaviour such that as Nell got older the list of crimes diminished. However, at the tender age of 13, her owners arrived home to find a bin bag spread out on the floor with every scrap of available food repurposed. There was life in the old dog yet!
Nell was a chaser, and despite her genes, was surprisingly quick. That’s not to say she had any chance against her favourite breed (any kind of lurcher), but she was cunning at cutting off the corners to then meet her prey at full speed with a shoulder barge being the intention. If a dog walker was met with 10 dogs and one of them had some greyhound in them, Nell instantly recognized it and was ready for the chase. Her favourite race partners were large, strong dogs who could not be hurt from the occasional fall and enjoyed the challenge of a race. Dougal, the lurcher/staffie cross, and Nell, would chase for hours on Hampstead Heath never seeming to tire.
Her races sometimes led to mishap like the time she came across an Irish Wolfhound who loped ahead of her easily. While chasing down hill in full concentration, she misread the ill-placed human path cut into the hillside creating an uneven camber and rolled at full throttle. The onlookers who had paused for the spectacle were alarmed to say the least as Nell went head over tail like some Hollywood slow motion car crash but immediately bounded up on her feet as she slowed and was ready to go again.
Dogs were not the only creatures she liked to chase. The criteria was pretty simple really. If it had fur (but not feathers) and could run, then she wanted to chase it. Her hobby was significantly, and surprisingly, aided by her incredibly good nose. Perhaps all dogs share this ability but Nell used it to wonderful effect – that is unless you were the hidden deer, she had uncovered. The cats and foxes of Kilburn must have considered Brondesbury Villas with some trepidation as crossing that particular garden was always hazardous. That being said, Nell had no kill instinct, she just wanted to chase. This was illustrated on the one occasion she cornered a cat against the shed but simply waited for it to run so the chase could begin again. The street cats she met later on in life in Yangon never ran away but always held their ground with a mean stare. Nell never interfered with them as they didn’t understand the game.
If chasing was not on the menu then her second favourite sport was wrestling. Few dogs really could get to grips with her particular brand of rough and tumble but it was a delight to watch when the chemistry worked. Romin, a rather soft Rotweiler, understood Nell’s rules and they would play together while walking on the Heath. They both enjoyed the comfort of the ‘can’t hurt, can’t be hurt’ situation although the game proved too much to some human passers-by.
One dog instinctively understood the wrestling game and, at three times the size of Nell, Cleo the Leonberger, was more than a match. However when a dog weighing 55 kilos (120 pounds) decides to wrestle enthusiastically, there can be collateral damage. This might come in the form of knocked over tables and chairs and a lot of noise too. Nell’s owners offered a sleepover to Cleo once, but had to get up at 4am and shoo the dogs into the garden to mitigate the fall out from their canine wrestlemania.
Some dogs are protective of property and some of people. Nell was protective of people while in property which made for some unusual situations. If her owners were at home and someone had the audacity to come to the door then Nell would let them know in no uncertain terms that she was present and should not be taken lightly. A gate handily placed before the front door meant that salespeople and other nefarious door knockers would have the life frightened out of them as Nell hurtled towards the gate with great energy.
That being said, those same door knockers could come in (if they were brave enough) and after a few minutes would then enjoy the same level of protection afforded to anyone in the property. This would be true even if her owners would vacate the property leaving almost complete strangers (to Nell) with the best bodyguard they ever had. Nell’s rules were absolute. There had to be someone present to protect, for her job to kick in. If no one was at home, there was no need for the histrionics. This was extremely surprising to a friend with keys who visited alone to make use of the shower while theirs was being renovated. Nell never even got off the sofa!
Nell’s humans had never thought that far ahead when they first adopted Nell but 8 years later, they were set on a move to Myanmar of all places. Her people were never more worried sick than when they went through the process of getting her to Myanmar. The worry of the move from London to Myanmar to new jobs, and in one case a new industry, for them was nothing in comparison to the worry of getting her to Myanmar but Nell herself sailed through the process without a problem. Nell only ever wanted to be with her family and it didn’t matter to her if that was in London or anywhere else in the world.
Life in Yangon was a little more slow paced than London. There were few places for off lead exercise in Yangon although they did find a few in the end. The day always started with a walk around the local streets where her humans soon made friends with many of the local dogs both owned and unowned. They fed them treats everyday and despite Nell’s affection for food and the large number of dogs crowding around at times, she never lost her cool with the street dogs and they never lost their cool with her. It may have been a vibe she exhibited but whatever it was it made for a detente with the locals.
Myanmar people are not usually comfortable around dogs but Nell made a few friends along the way and was a definite feature of her neighbourhood. One friend, in fact two, were made very early on in the guise of her human’s home help. Gone were the days of Nell needing to go to a dog walker for holidays. Now she had someone who could move into her home when her humans were not around and look after her in her own surroundings. This person and her son loved Nell dearly which became crucially important when the coup in Myanmar and the ravages of Covid led to an enforced separation of around nine months. Nell’s humans needn’t have worried and Nell was spoiled enough to even receive a proper cake on her birthday!
Five years flew by in Myanmar but now Nell was getting old. Her robust health gave way to what was later discovered to be some kind of tick borne disease. Post Covid vets in Myanmar were at a loss and said that she should be taken to someone in the UK. The transition from Myanmar to the UK and then the UK to Ghana was even more stressful to the humans than her arrival in Myanmar and another post on this blog attests to that story.
Ghana life was not dissimilar to Myanmar life with the exception that compound living gave Nell many new friends both canine and human. She loved all the people in the compound and liked having the extended family around.
The vets in the UK, despite having money thrown at them, made no progress with her illness but a kind and clever vet in Ghana spotted the issue immediately and was able to provide treatment that probably extended her life by a year. Eventually though, it caught up with her and by then she simply could not fight it off.
There are many other stories about Nell and not all of them would paint her in the best light. She was not a good dog in the sense that humans usually use that expression to describe a well behaved dog who is easy to manage and friendly to all. No, she was a good dog in the sense that she was a healthy, athletic dog unencumbered by the vagaries of over-breeding. She chose her human and animal loved ones carefully and also those she didn’t like and acted accordingly.
Nell is fondly remembered by almost all those who knew her and leaves two humans.
Gav and Schubie's Adventure Blog 
Leave a comment