I have always had dogs. My grandfather had a big Newfoundland called Chucky (but spelled differently) and my father always had hunting dogs. I had a series of Labradors and since we bought Knightstone we had our own Chucky , a Newfoundland too, and Nallah, a Rhodesian Ridgeback. And Jennifer was used to dogs as well. The family had dogs at home and when she moved to Manila she had a Dalmatian.
All the family was very attached to Chucky, who is buried at Knightstone, and we were longing to have another large and child friendly dog after both Chucky and Nallah were gone. We decided this time to go for a St Bernard. Felix arrived in May last year and was as cuddly and wonderful as a puppy could possibly be.
Especially Riza fell in love with Felix and fed him and brushed him and took care of him. But Felix grew up and a year later he was a heavy 67 kg dog. And although he was sweet as gold to us, he was too protective and barked and rushed out to defend “his” domain. He had a habit of nipping you in the arm to catch your attention, but when a 67 kg dog does that it can be intimidating and even frightening for people passing by.
I arranged for a dog trainer/dog psychologist to come and help us with Felix and teach us how to handle him, but in the end he was too heavy for me to control, and Riza was as well reluctant to go out with him. Chucky was a very large dog as well, but I never felt any problems handling Chucky.
We took, very reluctantly, the decision that we must find another family for Felix. It wasn’t an easy decision and it caused some tremors in the family, but I am convinced it was necessary and also the best for Felix. Late in July, a year and two months after Felix had arrived, we got a family visiting from Cheshire. They immediately fell in love with Felix and as importantly Felix seemed to love them. They had a 10 year old daughter and both father, mother and daughter were very happy to handle Felix.
They lived with fields and forests nearby and had already two other large dogs. At the end of the day, Felix and the daughter shared the back seat of their little car and they drove away to a new life for Felix. It was difficult for us, and for me it felt like a personal failure as well as losing someone you love. But we have seen many photos of Felix in his new home and I am intellectually convinced we have done the right thing for both Felix, ourselves and other people. But emotionally it was difficult for all of us, and it may take some time before we get a new dog again and can overcome the loss of Felix.
