Sioux – March 2008 – October 2021
We are devastated to bring you the news that one of our very special sponsor dogs has made her final journey over the rainbow bridge. Sioux (pronounced Sue) didn’t have the best start in life. Her first owners tried to turn her into a fighting dog and after little success used her as a bait dog instead. Her mum Jackie says,
“We picked you up for GWRE and somehow managed to get you back to the kennels, thinking in the morning there would be a visit to the vet. You were in with an old greyhound that gave you company. In the morning a faint wag on your white tail tip gave us hope. You learnt to trust us and our visiting friends and relatives and all their dogs were not scary as you were now in your safe haven. You loved being in the paddock surveying everything around you, however after 5 months we made no headway with your loathing of strange dogs outside your boundaries.
GRWE took you into their kennels for some 1-2-1 training. After 15 months with knowledgeable people like Carol Baby helping you, you were much improved, however homing you was difficult and on 31st March 2011 Jan Lake brought you back to us and you flew into our open arms with not a dry eye in the house. How happy you were with all the friends you had made there.
Eventually you spent days in our home with us, muzzled, and lived with our five other dogs but would always go to the back door to go back to your kennel and the rescued dog we had at the time. I would come over and lay in your bed with you and we would listen to The Archers. I would often doze off with you cuddled into me. In the end the muzzle came off and you lived with us full time.
You loved our grandsons when they visited and spoke to them in Staffie language and were so sad when they left. Aunty Shelley and her Staffies came over and there were treats all round. How happy you were and would eat with them with no conflict. You had come such a long way. Aunty Carole and her dogs would spend an evening with us and bring cake, that was your weakness and you kept asking for more.
Our lifestyle changed – 5AM walks all year round in quiet woodland where you could run off lead without a muzzle with your mate Maggie and how you ran! As you got older and not so energetic I took you to Cornwall to a remote cottage with a huge garden and a lack of other dogs around – heaven for you. You could not take your eyes off the ocean or the seagulls flying on the clifftops. Sadly there were no beach swims as that’s where all the local dogs were.
Sioux, the day we dreaded had arrived. Your brave and faithful heart failed. You laid with me in the back of the car, kissed the vet, you never knew a thing as you peacefully faded. Now you are buried near the footpath where you endlessly told other dogs off for getting too near. All who knew you loved you Sioux. What better epitaph could you have. One day we will meet you at Rainbow bridge and you will fly into our arms again, Mum x”
The day I went home forever, by Dewi