Before
our involvment with show boxers I bought a dog puppy (before Jean
and I were married). It was early 1961 and I had just been drafted
to HMS Ark Royal, (hence the prefix). I saw an advertisment in the
Western Evening Herald for Boxer puppies and I made enquiries. I
bought a dog puppy and had to pick him up from Plymouth North road
railway station. He came in a tea chest. Obviously I couldn't keep
him on board the ship and fortunately for me, my best pal lived in
married quarters and he went to live with them. I visited him on
evenings and weekends; sadly my friends family were frequently visited
by friends who had a puppy and even though my puppy had had all his
injections, he caught distemper and died.
A few years later when I left the Navy, I wanted a Boxer, but bringing up our
family took priority over purchasing a Boxer pup with our limited financial resources.
In the late sixties Jean was asked to go to Manchester dogs home with a friend
from work. The friend wanted a German Shepherd dog and Jean went along for the
ride. When they got back Jean came in excited "they have got a boxer at
the dogs home Tony" and had made enquiries with the staff and was told he
had just come in and if no one claimed him over the next few days he would be
available. We rang a few days later and arranged to bring him home for the princely
sum of £4. We called him Butch and he was a lovely family pet. His only
problem was that if you were not over diligent when you opened the front door,
he would be off like a shot, re-appearing later as if butter would not melt in
his mouth. We then realised that was probably how he came to be in the dogs home,
needless to say that his escapes were kept to an absolute minimum.
