What Was It All About, Dear Alfie?

Jon Snowdon mourns his beloved and mischievous canine companion of the past 11 eventful years

- Jon Snowdon

I had walked the big lad that morning as usual and he was his old mischievous self, bounding around with Molly, our chocolate lab.

A few hours later Eddy, an old stalking friend, who had spent many an outing in Alfie’s company, called to stay for a few days. We were just going to the kennel so that he could say “hello” to the big lad while he was going to be fed, always the most important time of day for Alfie.

On my approach, due to the lack of the big lad’s usual noisy boisterous greeting, I started to wonder what he was up to. Those of you who have read about Alfie’s antics over the years will understand why that was my first thought. On our arrival at the kennel, the sight of the big boy lying peacefully in the kennel having passed away greeted us.

New arrival

Alfie has been a part of my monthly articles in Sporting Gun since around summer 2008. He arrived at Greenlee in July of that year when he was five months old and I started to write about his antics soon after. I have bred springer spaniels and chocolate Labradors in the past so it had been quite a while since I had bought a new dog. With his arrival I was introduced to the German wirehaired pointer breed, a large one, going by the kennel name of Trudvang Alfader and he enriched my life from that day.

I always smile when greeting someone’s dog and they tell me they are characters. All dogs are characters but that description can have a number of connotations. Alfie was a character and that became evident pretty quickly. All pups chew and Alfie with his size was capable of chewing a sofa into small particles in seconds.