The Small Dog With a Big Personality Read Free Page B

local family’s pet, Major Woodrow conducted an investigation. The word on the street confirmed that the dog had been a stray for some time and showed no attachment to anyone, other than the soldiers. The company commander felt a sense of relief. He hadn’t relished the idea of telling Fielding that the dog had to be expelled from the barracks. Clearly the little chap had already had a good effect on the men. He had once been their playful friend and now he had suffered as they were suffering. He had been injured in the line of duty with his fellow soldiers. He was to them, a soldier dog.
    But to many of the men he had become something more than that. Major Woodrow recalls: ‘In times of adversity you can confide in a dog in a way you feel you cannot in another human being for fear of being thought weak or stupid. Fortunately Rat was very sensitive to human emotion and so he saw your fear before you felt it. He was good for the men because he never judged anyone and he never failed to provide comfort when it was needed. It was good just to have him around.’
    And so the British Army base in Crossmaglen adopted the scruffy little brown dog. That meant it was time to give him a name.
    Although the dog came to be known as Rats, the Grenadier Guards who adopted him still insist that his name was Rat, in the singular. But everyone has their own version of why the choice of name. ‘Rat seemed a good name for the dog but for many different reasons,’ explains Major Woodrow. ‘He will always be Rat to us because, quite simply, he looked like a rat. Also he was very dirty and had some filthy habits when we first met him. On top of that he liked chasing rodents in thebarracks, which was very useful, although he was not overly successful and he was bitten more than once. Some will tell you that his name is short for “rations” and certainly this dog loved his food.’
    As soon as he had made a full recovery Rat was allowed to wander where he liked. His priority on his first night out of hospital was to find a cosy bed. No one minded the dog sharing their bunk so he was given the choice of all 18. Rat took one look at the three tiers of brutally rigid accommodation and skipped jauntily past all of them, making a beeline for the single bed in the company commander’s room, where he stopped briefly to relieve himself and then moved on. It was a good job the major took it in good humour. It helped that back home he was the proud owner of Willoughby, a basset hound, and understood the idiosyncrasies of canine behaviour; otherwise Rat would have had the shortest career ever in the British Army. But one thing was for sure, he had to have a bed he could call his own even if he preferred to share with Tim Fielding. No one wanted Rat leaving his calling card on their bed!
    His life on the streets had made Rat greedy with food. If it was offered, Rat would eat it. What many of the men failed to appreciate was that Fielding took care of Rat. He fed and watered him and made sure the dog had no need to beg. But Rat couldn’t help begging and the men wanted to share their chips and chocolate, their suet pudding and sweets and everything else that passed for food. It was probably how he acquired a liking for his favourite Army ‘grub’, the NAAFI’s special steak pies. Unsurprisingly, someone was always clearing up after one of Rat’s eating binges. ‘He could be quite revolting,’ recalls Major Woodrow. ‘There were times when it seemed he was sick all the time and it was not one of his most endearing qualities. At Christmas when the fridge was full of goodies Rat just sat at the fridge door waiting for treats and, of course, he was never disappointed.’
    The soldiers’ time off duty could never be spent off the base. It was too dangerous. It was impossible for the men to walk into shops or pubs in a social capacity. It simply couldn’t work that way. It was not because the locals generally wanted to be unfriendly; it was, on