Our Story - In Loving memory of "Fritz" and “Zippo”

Fifteen years ago I had a beautiful German Shepherd named Fritz. I got him as a rehome when he was three. He became a very loyal companion, especially to my then two-year-old son.

Fritz was very protective of the family. One day my son who was two at the time went missing. I searched everywhere; I got family and neighbours to help and eventually had to call the Police. My mind was working frantically, where could he be? Then something made me think of Fritz, so I ran to his kennel: “Where’s Brandon? Where’s Brandon?”. Fritz tilted his head, came out of his kennel and looked back into his kennel, and who should be there, my son, curled up having a good snooze! Everyone was relieved, and laughed . . . afterwards!

Sadly a few years later Fritz was run over. We were all shattered, and I must admit I still miss him dearly.
I decided to look for another Shepherd. A local dog pound rang and said they had a lot of dogs including some Shepherds, but I had to hurry as a few were about to be euthanised. Like a mad woman I jumped in my car and drove for an hour to have a look at these dogs.

It was very sad to see all these dogs on death row. I looked at the Shepherds, but something in me didn’t click, so I moved along the kennels disheartened. Then I saw this wee foxie shaking and whimpering. He made his way over and when I patted him he just went batty, jumping around, racing around his cage and rolling over.

I felt this little flutter and thought he would fit in well with our family. The pound staff member informed me he was on death row that day. They'd had had this wee fellow in their pound a few times, but this time when they went to contact the owners they had disappeared!

"I'll take him!" The attendant informed me that he was a wanderer so I had better have a fenced yard (I did).

As I was leading him to my car the vet had turned up. I looked down at him and you could tell he was grateful, but I couldn’t help but shed a tear for the other dogs that hadn’t been so lucky.

I named him "Zippo", and yes, he kept escaping (good thing I knew the dog pound man). Finally, after a few years he stopped wandering. He was a great dog and everyone loved him. He loved looking for rabbits, was scared of our cats, dug for grubs and was just a nutty wee dog.

Some years later I moved in with my partner who had a Newfoundland, to my surprise the got on famously, Zippo did get a bit snarly as he was getting on in his age a little deaf and losing his sight, and Toby our Newfy would stand on him. But it was a funny sight to see the Newfy following Zippo around all the time, they were best mates.

I had my Zippo for 15 years, and was in hospital having another child (surprised) when, one day, he took himself off for a walk and never came back. I was beside myself. We looked everywhere and advertised for him. But as the months went by, I finally came to grips that he wasn’t coming back.
I still miss both Fritz and Zippo dearly, even though we have wonderful new pets today.

Aranda Ferrige
Ngatea
Hauraki Plains, New Zealand

PS: I would like to say that Operation Toby is awesome. Keep up the marvelous work.

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