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Our first memory of Muffin was on a rain swept day at the end of September 1991 at Mrs Enid Lords (her breeder) house. We had just got back from honeymoon and driven straight up to Preston in Lancashire to pick up a puppy reserved for us as a wedding present by my Aunt Milly, herself a Lancashire Heeler owner. We did not know which puppy we were going to have only that we would like to have a bitch. As we sat in Mrs Lord’s kitchen in raced 5 little black and Tan tornados! I remember sitting down on the floor as they bounded round the room, then after a few minutes one came up to me and quietly climbed into my lap, we had been chosen! Muffin didn’t have brown eyebrows and was quite dark compared to her brothers and sisters, she wasn’t the best of the litter, but she had chosen us, and that was all that mattered.
On the drive back down south she was very inquisitive of her new surroundings and although we had been warned that she might get car sick, not a bit of it she was eager to share our tuna fish sandwiches!
Back in London as we lived then, she soon began to rule our lives she became a regular on Wandsworth Common and Richmond Park. She hated being on her own and came everywhere with us in the car, if we left her at home we would get a dirty protest! At night she insisted on sleeping on our bed and if we put her downstairs she would bark all night until we gave in and when that didn’t work she would chew up the furniture! Then when she was nine months old I gave birth to Twin daughters. At first we were worried that she would be jealous of the girls but again she surprised us by being very protective of the twins. We always made sure that once the twins were in bed we made time to play with her and for the first time she began to sleep downstairs quite happily. She loved balls especially footballs, she was the only dog I know who could play football using her feet as well as her nose to dribble the ball, it was quite amazing to watch.
In 1993 we moved to our present house here in West Sussex, and with eight acres of garden and surrounded by countryside she revelled in her new freedom. After putting in a cat flap for the cat, it took Muffin less than 5 minutes to realise that she could also use it to get access to the garden when ever she wished, she was a remarkably intelligent dog. In 1994 we decided that it was time to get her a companion, so back to Mrs Lord we went and that Christmas Waffle entered our lives. Waffle is Muffins half sister, same dame different sire we assumed that they would get on just fine; Muffin had other ideas! Right from the start she would put Waffle in her place, Muffin was top dog and she wasn’t going to have some wiper snapper take her place. As far as she was concerned Waffle was just a dog while she was our eldest daughter! When Waffle had puppies in 1997 Muffin would tolerate Eccles the pup we kept in a way she would never tolerated Waffle. She always slept in the kitchen the other two have always slept in the utility room. If we tried to sleep in, in the morning she would be out the cat flap and barking up at our window, she wouldn’t give up until one of us let her upstairs, then she would crawl on her belly looking all appealing until we gave in and let her up on the bed.
Right to the end she seemed remarkably healthy, and agile for her age, she was never ill except 3 years ago when she got bitten by an Adder she disturbed one morning in the garden, luckily we got her to the Vet in time and she made a full recovery. Then suddenly while racing to the door one day to greet a friend who had just arrived she keeled over. Our Vet took bloods and X-rays and discovered that her heart was 50% bigger than it should be and was pressing on her windpipe, she also had fluid in her lungs. We had, had no warning; she had not developed the usual cough associated with such conditions. Our Vet gave her diuretics and heart pills and she seemed to rally, but two weeks later she had another attack. Malcolm our Vet and a family friend fought to save her for nearly 2 hours but she had had enough. He took her off the oxygen and handed her to me, she gave my face one last lick before becoming unconscious, and she died in my arms a few minutes later. At least I was spared having to have her put to sleep.
We buried her in the orchard under a plum tree. We never intend to move from this house so she will always be with us, we shall never forget her. She was a very very special little dog.
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