Alphie Furlonger

REALLY SAD NEWS (March 2019)

A devastated Sean told us today (Mon, 25th March 2019) their gorgeous, dark golden Alphie had crossed Rainbow Bridge. He said “Just over 12 years ago, we collected Alphie from you and gave him his forever home. It is with much sadness that I have to tell you he is no longer with us, poor old boy. He will be greatly missed but he is no longer in any pain. I would like to thank you for introducing Alphie to us.”

Pauline remembers so well the darling little puppy that she fostered and the day that he met his wonderful family and the adorable children. It was, clearly, a perfect match. Thank you all for loving Alphie to bits and for giving him a brilliant life.

TEN WONDERFUL YEARS LATER (30.7.2017)

Ten years ago, little Molly (dressed in yellow and orange) went to Pauline’s to pick up baby Alphie with her older sister Megan and their Mum, Claire. It was love at first sight.

On 10th July, we got a lovely update on our special boy from Molly. She said “Hi! My name’s Molly and me and my family adopted a retriever/setter in 2007 called Alphie.

He and Sophie, our other dog, are doing brilliantly, just a bit more grey and slow!!

Alphie is quite scared of lightning and gunshots now because, sadly, on a walk a few years ago he was going under a metal fence which got struck by lightning just as he was going underneath it!!

It went straight through him, thankfully, but he is still incredibly terrified on occasions like firework night. We can’t leave him alone for a minute!

When I looked at the website and saw all the pictures and memories from when we first got Alphie I almost cried! I had completely forgotten what he looked like as a puppy! Hope you like my new pictures of the older and greyer version of our little puppy from 2007″.

HISTORY

Sandie said, “I picked Alphie up today. He is beautiful, quiet, calm, gets on with the others. He is absolutely not hyper and is a real dote”

Claire, Alphies new mummy, wrote: Our main man is still doing fabulously. Another quiet and dry night, love him. He did the walk to school with me this morning and thought it was excellent fun. So many people to make a fuss of him. He has a wonderful new crate, where he has his bed and his toys, which lives in the kitchen.

Both dogs seem so happy and settled now. They completely adore each other and when they lay down on the rug in the evenings they are always touching or wrapped round each other. It really is so lovely to see.

UPDATE 28/1/09

Claire said. “I am writing a little bit about our Alphie as it is his 2-year anniversary with us today. As you see from the piccies, he is a very handsome fellow, now weighing in at 30 kilos, which is a big improvement on 8, when we got him. Our vet reckons that he is the perfect weight now for his age/size/breeds (retriever/setter). We all think that he is just perfect. We had quite a lot of problems when we first got him with howling when left, kennel cough, destruction of pretty much anything. He was very anxious when we had to leave him and we tried all sorts of things to help him – sprays, drops, toys, food, my clothes, crate, ticking clocks, the lot. I involved everyone I could think of.

Firstly Lynne, your lady with the lotions and potions. Then onto the Dog Warden with our local council. They were very kind and helpful with lots of suggestions, which we duly tried. Then onto a dog behaviourist, who again was very kind and helpful and patient with us. We ended up finally a few months later with a “Sophie”.

Very, very strange how we came upon poor Sophie. Now there was a dog with severe behavioural problems, due to her being subjected to all sorts of vicious treatment, neglect and downright cruelty. She came from our local rescue centre, Woodside in Plymouth. They have since told me that they never thought they would be able to home her. She is a complete “whatever” breed, including collie, Alsatian, pointer, Lurcher, but to name a few. She is a very odd looking dog, but she is now absolutely beautiful to us. She was 6 months and 6 kilos when we adopted her. She is now 2 ish and 28 kilos.

They are both so very kind natured. They simply adore each other and in the evenings they are always touching, sometimes just paws, sometimes completely entwined. They are both bomb proof with my 2 daughters, Megan 9 and Molly 4. They often get dressed up as Barbie and Ken and with the help of Molly actually get married, which they genuinely seem to enjoy. Every night they come upstairs when we put the girls to bed and listen to the bedtime stories.

They are both completely settled and happy as can be. They adore us and each other and we adore them. We no longer have any problems leaving him now and usually the house is the same when we return, as when we left.

They are walked for 1 hour in the mornings, often in the dark, which they love in the winter, chasing absolutely everything. Alphie’s favourites are birds and rabbits. We then all go out again after school.

Alphie’s tummy has now settled down most of the time but I think that he will get the “runs” at the “drop of a hat”, due to the fact that he almost died from the canine parvo virus, which he had as a very young pup. We do have to be very careful with what he eats with any treats/bones/chews. They both certainly have very good appetites. They have their favourite toys. Alphie parades around with his squeaky ball showing off and they both love to play “tug” with us and each other, especially on the beach with seaweed, where people often comment on what a good-looking dog Alphie is.”

UPDATE 2 MAY 2009

This is Sophie and Alphie looking extremely intelligent…… NOT!!!

PHOTOS OF ALPHIE – JAN 2010