It's a Dogs Life

We share our cottage with our 2 border collies; nine year old Mona and Ramsey who is almost 2 years old.

They are our current "family" following on from their predecessors: Chesil, Lowen, Ellie and Sulby.

Ellie

All have been rescue dogs apart from Ramsey who we purchased from a breeder in Yorkshire.

When Claire came to live with me in Warrington she arrived with Lowen and Chesil.

When the time came to look for a new dog we had to decide on a name.

Claire soon learnt of my obsession with the Isle of Man when we went there on my Kawasaki for our honeymoon in 2001. It was therefore agreed that our dogs would have Manx names.

Lowen with his big mate Harry

WE spent ages pouring over an OS map of the island looking at place names we could use.

Our first Manx dog was Ellen Vannin which is Manx for Isle of Man. This soon got abbreviated to Ellie.

Next was Sulby Glen; a famous stretch of the TT course.

Then Mona, after Glen Mona; on of the many glens that we have walked in on the island.

Chesil

Finally we have our recent addition Ramsey named after the town but also a famous section of the TT course. If he needs a surname we could always call him Ramsey Hairpin after the sharp turn on the TT course.

For a while we also looked after Claire's mum's dog Jack.

Fortunately this also has a Manx connection as there is a small bay called Port Jack on the island.

Future dogs names already listed are: Erin (Port Erin), Douglas (the capital), Isabella( the name for Laxey's famous water wheel and if we end up with a badly behaved dog "Little Sod" named after another bay called Soderick.

I'll see if Claire can add a future post of her own on the many stories she has to tell about her dogs.

They are a large part of our lives. They go everywhere with us and they give more than they take as far as affection and company are concerned.

As one of my heroes Groucho Marx puts it  “Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” 

Jack