The Story of Crispin

Last April we came back to Norwich and one of the first things we did was put a message in the Evening News for a Dalmatian puppy.

We had already decided his name...Crispin.

A woman phoned up and said "she had nine Dalmatians but all her boys were spoken for."

And then a man called who said he had a Dalmatian..or mostly Dalmatian which had been badly treated and abandoned and then left with a couple's 84 year old grandmother chained to a fence.I don't mean the grandmother was chained to a fence.

He said the dog was in a pitiful condition and his bones were showing and he had worms and fleas,but "was a lovely chap" and that if we wanted him he would be free to a good home.

In he bounded.He immediately ran from one end of the house and out through the windows to the garden where he urinated for what seemed five minutes non-stop as Yuki looked on aghast and shook her head silently mouthing the words "he's too big"

Yes,he was big and skinny.There might have been some Great Dane in there somewhere or a Boxer or Rotweiller but we shall never know as the man and woman who delivered Crispin to our house never returned or phoned back.

And so there I was walking a dog for the first time in my life.What a handful he was.Pulling at his flimsy lead and almost wrenching my arm off.His dog's mess was like thick soup and contained a curling worm or two.

The first thing we did was to take him to the vet and have him injected for worms,philaria and a couple of other things which I've forgotten.

Crispin was about five or six months when we got him and already showing a morbid interest in young boys.