The saying “never judge a book by its cover” could not have been more true in Clive’s case as although he looked very fierce and dangerous he was the biggest softie I have ever come across. Clive was such a big baby that he could not be left on his own even for a couple of minutes. Even if we were in the house we could not leave Clive in another room while we got on with something else. Clive had to be with us 24/7 otherwise he panicked and since he was so big and strong he was liable to cause damage to the house! I often wondered how his owners managed when they had to go to work and their children had to go to school, still I expect they had figured something out!
I have a rule that dogs are allowed everywhere downstairs in my home but they are not allowed upstairs. However, for obvious reasons I very quickly decided that I would have no option but to break this rule in Clive’s case and so he was allowed to sleep in our bedroom on his big cushion at the foot of our bed. It was very funny listening to him snoring in the dark once we had turned out the lights and now and then we would hear a contented groan coming from his direction, which made us laugh.
On one occasion Clive was in the garden with some of his doggy friends and appeared to be happy and playing so I decided to pop down the lane to the riding arena with my horse Dan for half an hour. My husband was working in his office, so he could keep an eye on Clive from the window and my young Italian guest was reading in the conservatory with the door open into the garden, so Clive could pop in and see her if he wanted. I hadn’t gone very far down the dirt track leading from my house to the livery yard when Dan started looking behind as if there was something there. I turned my head and sure enough there was Clive following us down the lane. He must have scrambled over the 5 bar field gate somehow (something he had not done before nor since) which was quite a feat considering how high it is. I had to laugh at his determination to be with me at all costs as I did a U turn and escorted him back to the house where I left him inside with my husband acting as baby sitter.