Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 45m45 minutes ago When you have a dog, Twitter, you start to recognise the other dogs you see in your local area or at the park. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 44m44 minutes ago Often you recognise the dog more readily than the owner. Sometimes you find out the dog's name, but you never find out the owner's. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 43m43 minutes ago You'll greet the dog, and the owner might greet your dog too. You chat, and this can go on for years without the two owners exchanging names. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 42m42 minutes ago There was a dog I used to love seeing when I first moved to this area, 11 years ago. He was a very smart little fox terrier. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 42m42 minutes ago I used to see him often, being walked by an elderly man who seemed to have a lot of character. Knife-sharp slacks, flat cap, sports coat. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 41m41 minutes ago Eventually I heard the old man talking to the dog. Turns out his name was Edward, or Teddy for short. I started saying hello to Teddy. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 41m41 minutes ago It got so that the old chap would raise a vague hand at me now and then, and I would greet him. Teddy wasn't keen on other dogs though. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 39m39 minutes ago The old chap had a couple of elderly friends he hung out with in the park sometimes. One had a big quiff and an alsatian. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 38m38 minutes ago It was a white alsatian. Or possibly a malamute, I'm not sure. He groomed it in the park. The fur blew around. He never let it off the lead. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 37m37 minutes ago One day I saw where Teddy and his owner lived, just around the corner from me. He had a cool gold car, a Capri I seem to remember. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 37m37 minutes ago After a while, I began to see him out with a different dog instead. I'm not sure what it was, possibly a poodle cross. Bigger, curly, fatter Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 36m36 minutes ago This dog was friendlier, which made it easier to go and chat. Turns out that Edward had died. I was really sad. But now he had Robert. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 35m35 minutes ago Robert the dog had been given to him by his friend with the alsatian. He'd gone to a rescue centre & got him. He was called Bobby for short. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 35m35 minutes ago I think we all missed Teddy, even though Teddy wasn't that keen on other dogs. Bobby was OK, though. And it was good he had company. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 34m34 minutes ago One day I walked past the three old boys in the park and overheard what they were saying. I can't remember exactly what it was now, but... Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 33m33 minutes ago ...I realised that they were all Teddy Boys. Teddy Boys! It all made sense: the quiff, the sharp clothes, the gold Capri, Teddy the dog. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 33m33 minutes ago I don't know why, but I loved finding this out. I loved the fact that they had all hung on to their subculture right into old age. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 31m31 minutes ago Just prior to the Christmas before last I introduced myself to Bobby's owner. He said his name was Peter. We had a good chat. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 31m31 minutes ago We talked about Christmas. He said he was going to be by himself (apart from Bobby) but that he liked it. "I'm very independent, you see." Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 30m30 minutes ago I didn't like to think of it, but it was really really clear that he was not someone to welcome "charity". Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 30m30 minutes ago Still, when I walked Scout on Christmas morning, I knocked on his door, with a card. He didn't answer, so I put it through the letterbox. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 28m28 minutes ago My husband & I share dog walking duties & we don't always go to the park by Peter's house, so it took a while to realise we hadn't seen him. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 28m28 minutes ago And then last week, my husband said he'd been past the house and the car was gone, and there was newspaper covering the windows. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 27m27 minutes ago So I walked that way today and it was just as he had said. Hmm. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 27m27 minutes ago Just after I passed, someone came out of the house. I turned back, really hoping it was Peter and Bobby. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 26m26 minutes ago But it was a lady. I went back and said, "Excuse me, I just wondered whether you might know if Peter was all right?" Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 26m26 minutes ago You know where this is going, right? Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 25m25 minutes ago Peter died a little while ago, in the house. The lady was in the process of buying it from the council. But wait: there's more... Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 24m24 minutes ago She wanted to know all about him. Did he have family? What was his name? Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 23m23 minutes ago I told her everything I knew. She said she'd been talking to him all the time she was there, saying she'd look after the house for him. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 22m22 minutes ago She said that although the house was in a bad state of repair inside, and though she knew he died there, it had a really good, warm feeling. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 22m22 minutes ago And she told me this: Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 21m21 minutes ago She said that when they were clearing the garden – he had built himself a sort of garage, very asbestosy – they found a headstone. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 21m21 minutes ago It was blank. It hadn't been carved. She asked me: "Do you think he was the sort of person to have arranged one for himself?" Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 21m21 minutes ago Gosh. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 20m20 minutes ago I think he might have been. But of course I couldn't say for sure. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 20m20 minutes ago I asked her what she was going to do with it. She said her friends had advised her to sell it, but that she wouldn't hear of such a thing. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 19m19 minutes ago She said that eventually the council had taken it away. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 18m18 minutes ago So I've come home and I can't stop thinking about it. What did he die of? Where's Bobby now? Why wasn't his headstone used? Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 18m18 minutes ago The chap with the white alsatian has got another dog now, a young alsatian that he is training. Again, he never lets it off the lead. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 17m17 minutes ago He also doesn't let it meet other dogs, which makes it difficult for me to go & talk to him when I see him. He will wave but cross the road. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 16m16 minutes ago I don't know what the end of the story is. The lady buying the house and I exchanged names (she is called Sue and she has a daughter). Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 14m14 minutes ago Perhaps the end of the story is Sue, making a home for herself and her daughter, quietly talking to Peter (and now the dogs!) to herself? Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 14m14 minutes ago Or perhaps I work out where the man with the alsatian lives, and go to his house without Scout, and knock on the door? I don't know. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 12m12 minutes ago I don't even know if it's a happy or a sad story. On the one hand, he spent Christmas by himself and died alone. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 11m11 minutes ago But on the other hand, he lived by his own rules, had friends right up until the end of his life, and wasn't hospitalised with dementia etc. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 11m11 minutes ago And I don't know if I need to find out more, or let it go. Melissa Harrison @M_Z_Harrison 10m10 minutes ago *FIN*