The dogs at Grindley Brook

Halfie, after his October cruise on the Llangollen Canal, mentions The dog at Grindley Brook:

The dog at Grindley Brook lives at the café at the bottom of the staircase. He/she likes to run up and down the locks chasing and retrieving a toy plastic spanner. The toy is put at your feet, and then you are expected to throw it for the dog to fetch. I didn't find out the dog's name.

Halfie attaches a couple of good photos, showing the dog and spanner. 

Ah, this takes me right back, six years ago, to the last time Granny Buttons was there.   I too found a dog eager to play 'fetch'.  And for me it was one of my favourite waterside photographs of all.

And - woof! - it's an excuse to fetch it now and drop it in front of you - and hope you throw a comment or two my way.

'My' dog was called Bruno, he was a German Pointer and was also owned by the people at the nearby Lockside Cafe.

I posted another photo of Bruno back in 2006, and Jane (owner of The Lockside Cafe) added a comment:

Bruno is still alive and climbing locks and the cafe and shop are still in business.

Well, Halfie's post was the perfect excuse for me to call them up again for a chat - I've not spoken to them since 2003, and Jane's husband was happy to talk.  He says that Bruno was a rescue dog, perhaps 2 years old when they acquired him around 1996, and would have been 9 or 10 when this picture was taken.  

Sadly Bruno died earlier this year.  Sniff.   No flowers, by request.

But Bruno retained a love of 'fetch' until he was quite old.  They were quite devoted to him and upset at his passing, just as Kipling warned:

Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.

'Halfie's dog' is Bruno's replacement (inasmuch as a new dog ever can be a replacement).  She's a collie cross bitch called Bee.  She's now just 12 months old.   And just as keen on 'fetch'.  

Ah!  How I wish my life was so simple that I could get so much pleasure from just chasing a stick.

The Lockside Cafe doesn't have its own website, but here's its entry in Cool Canals, if you want to arrange to pose dog and spanner in the same position as Bruno, in the middle lock of the staircase:

@29 Coffee Shop, Grindley Brook ~
Canalside by Grindley Brook Staircase Locks ~
T:01948 663385.

(Hey, The Dog and Spanner, what a great name for a pub that would be!  It would be as mysterious in origin as The Goat and Compasses)

Comments

[Halfie]

Glad to have been of service, Andrew!

[George]

15 years ago I came across a dog at bottom Tyrley on the Shroppie. It insisted on laying full length across the bottom gate mitres and would only begrudgingly move slightly when you actually opened the gates. Even then it stayed on the walking plank on one gate throughout the entire operation.
I reckon it was a deceased lock keeper come back to keep an eye on his patch.

George ex nb Alton retired