Hi all at NWESSR,
We just wanted to get in touch with news of the passing of Ralph on Tuesday 8th February 2022 who we adopted from you in early 2012. This is brief story of the amazing decade we had with Ralph…
Not going to lie, we took Ralph on and it wasn’t easy – he’d 5 homes before us, twice at the rescue home (we were prewarned by Mick that he had a few issues). He was quite a naughty boy but he did have some good training too. We realized very quickly we couldn’t have any toys in the house because he was too protective. So early on we took them away, but he would find things, things that belonged to us. He had a special place on the lawn where he would collect his treasures. We had to clear these to mow the lawn, but within 5 minutes of finishing there would be a carefully placed stolen object back in his spot😊 and by the end of the week a whole collection. He continued this habit at our new home in Wales. We called it his ‘stairway to heaven’ – he would place sticks all the way up the grassy bank at the side of the house. Sometimes haphazard but often in a perfect line, like ladder rungs all the way to the top. He would also lie in wait as Frazer built things in the garage and when he thought no one was watching, he would go in for the steal. We would find chunks of cut timber in amongst his stairway to heaven.
When Ralph first joined our home, he escaped a couple of times, but then out of the blue one time it literally stopped! We were having work done on the house and this one day he wanted to tell us the builders had left the gate open, so running through the house barking he guided us outside and stood barking at the open gates. We shut them and Ralph went trotting into the house tail wagging and never tried to escape again. In fact, you could leave the gates open and he wouldn’t leave.
Ralph loved water – we would walk him from our home near Brooklands in Sale along the canal to Sale water park and quite often on the way home, he would jump in the canal and swim from Dane Road to Brooklands. Always creating laughter, questions and interest from other canal users. He became quite famous for it. He also managed to build up a collection of admirers who passed our garden – many people would stop and fuss him at the gates of our garden. We lived on the corner of two streets and Ralph would often greet people at the side gates then run round to the front of the house in case they were walking past those gates too and he would get another fuss. And it wasn’t unusual to find gifts left for him by his two-legged friends!
He didn’t have the busy road to keep him occupied when we moved to Wales, but he had 16 acres of our land (rough hillside and bog) to roam around, as well as the hills and woods which he walked in with us. His love of water continued here, and he swam like a seal through the rivers, lakes and the sea locally to us here in Snowdonia (often with the company of his family!). I think if he could speak, he would tell the story of finding Springer heaven hidden in a corner of North Wales. He did of course make lots of human and a few good dog friends here and always put a smile on visitors faces – friends and delivery drivers alike! They were often in hysterics as Ralph would smile at them, sometimes a full baring of teeth broad smile and occasionally a one-sided Elvis-style grin. Of course, he caused some consternation due to his excited weeing on people’s shoes when he greeted them! Something that has been mentioned with a smile several times since telling everybody our sad news.
Sarah’s parents live with us Wales and Ralph would gently tap at their lounge door to be let in and if they didn’t open the door quickly enough, he would batter it. Once in, he would sit in front of the blank TV screen and bark, just once to let them know that he wanted to watch one of his favourite programs, Scooby Do or Shaun the Sheep.
When Ralph first arrived it was hard, we persevered, we loved him, we took him on very long walks to try and use up some of that energy and we gave him a safe environment to live in. All this resulted in Ralph’s happiness and inevitably his utter trust in us and ours in him. Ralph was a gorgeous, loving, incredibly clever boy and was a real companion to all of us individually and as a family. Frazer works offshore on rotation and Cam (our son), has been at university, but nothing made Ralph happier than us arriving home and him having his pack back together. Springers aren’t for everybody, but he was definitely the right dog for us and us the right family for him.
We miss him terribly, but we have beautiful memories and lots of photos (literally thousands!). We will keep him in our hearts forever.
Thank you NWESSR, for entrusting us with one special springer spaniel. We not only changed his life, but he most certainly changed ours for the better.
Frazer, Sarah and Cameron
