Tiger was a bulldog. He came home in grandfather Billy's coat pocket as a very small puppy.

His coat was a lovely shade of biscuit brown, so silky that it had a sheen on it when he moved.
He had a black, slobbery muzzle, a wrinkled nose and meltingly lovely , big ,brown eyes.
He had a warm kennel, his own plate and bowl and a thick, studded collar to which his lead was attached when he went out for a walk.

Billy's two sisters Henrietta and Frances (Hetty and Fanny) adored him and he knew it.
Fanny gave him his meals and Hetty gave him his baths.

Of course he was spoilt rotten and was more temperamental than a movie star, but they loved his ways and shamelessly played up to him.

For Example. "Tiger's Teatime"
Fanny:: Come along Tige, here's your tea. Eat it all up now, there's a good boy.

Tiger : (Making out to be asleep) ;Flumpf, sigh , yawn.
then he raised his head, glanced at plate in disgust and walked away.

:Fanny; Now look here, you come back here and eat your tea. Look at it!
It's lovely . A nice cooked knuckle with lots of juice and some biscuits too.
I thought you'd love that. What's wrong with it now?

:Hetty; Is that dog playing the fool again? I'll teach him to turn his nose up at good
food. WHERE'S THE STRAP?

Tiger knew the word strap, but also knew he didn't have anything to worry about unless someone made a move towards the laundry where the strap lived.

He made some faintly offensive noise and waddled outside.

Fanny;: You are a miserable, ungrateful dog and I'm sick of you turning your nose up at good food bought especially for you.
So just for that, you're not having it.I'll give it to the birds.
She went to the door holding his bowl of food.

Fanny Here spoggies, here spoggies Come and get Tiger's dinner.
The chickens down in the coop along the back fence heard and started racing up and down the wire netting, squawking and cackling madly.

Tiger reacted to this display with utter horror.
Just to confirm his worst fears Hetty said

"Here they come! All the sparrows and the chookies are going to have Tiger's dinner and he can go without."

Fanny; Serves him right too. What a naughty dog".

That did it big time, and Tiger jumped up at the bowl whining and pleading to have it replaced in front of his kennel where he stood over it growling and snarling as only a bulldog can.

Then ,while they watched in huge amusement, he hogged the lot, chomping and slobbering and licking the dish clean from one end of the back porch to the other.

Then he'd stand there and glare down at the chickens standing in a disappointed line along the wire netting and wag his stub of a tail in smug triumph.

:Ha ha ,I won again! Tiger One chookies Nil"


The next most dramatic event in Tiger's life was 'BATHTIME". also known as Hettie's revenge.

Every so often, depending on how smelly he became, on a Saturday morning,Tiger grew aware that the copper had been half filled and the fire lit under it to heat the water .

Tiger knew that when this sequence of events began it had one single outcome.

As the hated bath time drew nearer and nearer Tiger burrowed under the blankets in his kennel and hide.Or so he thought. All to no avail.
Auntie Hetty entered into the charade and played along with him.

They were all in fits of laughter, while Tiger lay "hidden"
except for his rump sticking out from the heap of blankets.

Hetty; Tiiiggerr!! Where are yoouuu?

No answer except for scuffling noises within the kennel.

Hetty went out the front , calling him. Then down to the shed, along the chicken coop fence and finally up to the kennel on the back veranda.'
She leaned inside and said
"I wonder if he's in here!"

Then she grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and hauled him out amid cries and whimpers and doggy pleas for mercy.

Nothing doing! It was bath time and that was it!

He was plonked into the wash tub, wet all over, soaped thoroughly and scrubbed.

And, while they did it, he cried. He sat there in the warm soapy water, not a snap or a snarl out of him, while big tears trickled out of his big, brown eyes and down his sniveling chops.

At last, he was nice and clean and Hetty lifted him out of the tub and rubbed him dry with a big,rough towel kept especially for him.

But, was it over then? Oh dear me indeed NO! Once he was out of Hetty's clutches, he tore down the yard and rolled in the dirt
He rolled on his back in it, he dug a slide and rubbed his tummy in it, he pushed his nose in it and covered his face in dirt so all they could see were his big, brown eyes.

Thickly covered in mud, he jauntily trotted back up to them watching from the back veranda and wagged his ridiculous tail at them. Then he took himself off to lie in the sun
to bake his mud coating brick hard.

When it was quite dry Hetty brushed him clean until his coat gleamed like silk. Collar replaced, he curled up in his kennel for a well deserved rest.

Sometimes Hetty decided the bedding in Tiger's kennel needed "refreshing" and pulled everything out for a good clean .

Tiger was frantic. All the nice chewy bones he'd been saving! Thrown out and given to the Chookies!! What an injustice!

All his old, familiar blankets dragged out of his lovely house."No! Don't do that! No! no! don't WASH them. Put them back this minute. No! no don't BURN them! Oh! cruel!!

He sat there and watched the destruction of his refuge with an expression of outrage and disgust until the kennel had been washed inside and out and the reeking rags replaced with new, fresh bedding.

Then , he dragged everything out of the kennel and down the yard to the dirt. Once it was all nice and dirty again he brought it back, replaced it in the kennel and, with much snuffling and grumbling, curled up in it and went to sleep.

Another high spot in Tiger's happy existence was "Going For a Walk."

Just the word "Walk" set him off with a display of grovelling delight, but when the lead actually came down from its hook he immediately sat (as close to the door as possible)
while the lead was attached to the ring on his wide ,studded collar.

Then they were off, Tiger leading the way at full stretch of his lead, head up,eyes missing nothing as they strolled along the shady street.

A short distance away lived another bulldog . A black and white one with a temperament far less agreeable to Tiger's, and they hated each other.

As Tiger waddled by the other dog raced up and down the fence hurling canine profanity as they passed.

Tiger ignored him until they reached the last fence post when he lifted his leg and piddled disdainfully , smirking at the furious dog behind the fence, and then stalked off with his nose in the air.

Tiger lived a long and happy life, much longer than the usual span of years for a bulldog.

Time took its toll and one day Billy told them,"Dr Haddon is coming today , I think you should all go out." So knowing what must be, must be , they went.

When they arrived home there was a pile of new turned earth down under the pepper tree by the back fence, and the studded collar was on the table in front of Billy where he sat, weeping bitterly.

The kennel was chopped up for firewood under the copper and the dishes went down to the chicken coop. But, for as long as they lived there, the studded collar and the lead hung on the hook alongside the raincoats behind the kitchen door.