Post by Paul on Dec 23, 2004 12:16:46 GMT 9.5
ROVER'S RESCUE
My story took place sixty three years ago when I was five years of age. My brother and I were walking along the canal bank with a neighbours dog 'Rover'. He was a cross between a Manchester terrier and a Bedlington Terrier.
We finally stopped underneath a bridge where I tried to get a stick out of the water and promptly fell in. I couldn't swim and neither could my brother who tried calling for help but there was no one around.
Rover ran onto the bridge and jumped into the water, grabbed my dress in his teeth and swam with me to the bank, unfortunately my feet were toward the bank and my brother could not get hold of me.
Rover swam out into the middle of the canal again, turned me around, then swam me back to the bank where my brother dragged me out by my hair.
My brother took me home where we both got into trouble and I remember sitting in a hot mustard bath in front of the fire with all the neighbours peering at me.
Rover was awarded a medal from the National Canine Defence League, the Canine V.C., and a silver mounted collar from the Daily Mirror newspaper.
Rover was a fearless dog who managed to get himself run over three times, one by a bicycle, then a car and finally by a motorcycle.
He was finally put to sleep in September 1939.
I still have the newspaper clipping of the award being given. I also have a book which was published in 1935 called 'Dog Heroes' by Peter Shaw Baker, in which Rover's story is written and of course the inevitable photograph of me sitting with Rover.
The irony of it all was that I was terrified of dogs as a child, and that fear remained even after Rover saved my life. I was a young adult before I could even pat a dog.
©G. Catherine Jordan. Golden Grove, SA.
My story took place sixty three years ago when I was five years of age. My brother and I were walking along the canal bank with a neighbours dog 'Rover'. He was a cross between a Manchester terrier and a Bedlington Terrier.
We finally stopped underneath a bridge where I tried to get a stick out of the water and promptly fell in. I couldn't swim and neither could my brother who tried calling for help but there was no one around.
Rover ran onto the bridge and jumped into the water, grabbed my dress in his teeth and swam with me to the bank, unfortunately my feet were toward the bank and my brother could not get hold of me.
Rover swam out into the middle of the canal again, turned me around, then swam me back to the bank where my brother dragged me out by my hair.
My brother took me home where we both got into trouble and I remember sitting in a hot mustard bath in front of the fire with all the neighbours peering at me.
Rover was awarded a medal from the National Canine Defence League, the Canine V.C., and a silver mounted collar from the Daily Mirror newspaper.
Rover was a fearless dog who managed to get himself run over three times, one by a bicycle, then a car and finally by a motorcycle.
He was finally put to sleep in September 1939.
I still have the newspaper clipping of the award being given. I also have a book which was published in 1935 called 'Dog Heroes' by Peter Shaw Baker, in which Rover's story is written and of course the inevitable photograph of me sitting with Rover.
The irony of it all was that I was terrified of dogs as a child, and that fear remained even after Rover saved my life. I was a young adult before I could even pat a dog.
©G. Catherine Jordan. Golden Grove, SA.
