Romy Bartholomew-Fletcher
Our Romy
Kerrigan remembers “I first met Romy in Little Valley Animal Sanctuary in Exeter on a beautiful sunny day in July 2004. I remember walking down a long line of pens and feeling quite sad that I couldn’t take them all home with me.
I stopped at each one to see who was peering out at me. If there was a connection I would stay but if not then I carried on walking. I had passed by 4 pens and nothing so far. I stopped to look at the dog in front of me who came over to the bars of the pen and stared back at me. “Hello” I said, “who are you?”
The dog seemed quite curious in me and I started to feel a connection when suddenly he looked me right in the eye and gave a growl which made me back away startled. At this point a big red bone came hurtling out of the pen next to me. From the angle I was standing I couldn’t see who had thrown the red bone so I quickly stood up, said goodbye to the growling dog and moved over a pen where Romy stood waiting for me to throw the red bone back to her, which I did over and over. We spent some time doing and this and by then I knew she had chosen me forever and that I was under her spell.
What I loved about Romy was the fact that she was really strong minded and never did anything she didn’t want to do. If the others were eating nice treats and she didn’t want any she would just turn her nose away no matter how tempting they were. I always felt like she was missing out but she just didn’t want them and that was that, enough said.
She loved chasing a ball, bone, stick anything that you could throw she would sit in anticipation of the chase. She just loved it. It was her world.
When she first moved in with us we went to a nearby field and played bat and ball. We had a tennis racket and would hit the ball and she would chase after it. We had been playing this game for some time and we were getting a little worn out at this point when Jason asked “How much longer should we do this for?”. I said “I’m not too sure but I’m sure Romy will stop when she has had enough”.
Little did we know?
Shortly after Romy keeled over from exhaustion and we had to put her in a horses water trough to revive her. I think we learned from this experience pretty quickly
She was so driven by the chase that it would have to be us that needed to decide when the game ended. Interestingly enough she never chased after anything else like cats, cars, postmen etc. It all stemmed from that lovely bright red rubber bone.
Romy was probably ‘my girl’ she was always near me watching what I was doing or where I was going. She seldom left my side often following me into the bathroom. It was just like having my very own stalker, only better, I imagine.
About a year after getting Romy, Bizzi joined us and they were like a little odd couple. They looked alike but had very different personalities. I’m not convinced they would have chosen each other but they tolerated the space together.
In the mornings Bizzi gets up and always goes to the corner where Romy’s basket used to be only to find that she isn’t there anymore. I know Bizzi misses her as much as I do and it still feels strange seeing one without the other.
Cancer took our Romy on the 1st September 2018. A lump appeared on her face that just got bigger and bigger until the day finally came when it won and we had to say our goodbyes.
I know she’s still around though. I sometimes see her out of the corner of my eye when I least expect it. It’s usually when the light is fading or I’m in the garden or on my own in the house.
I had a dream about her the other night where I was holding a dog in my arms which I thought was Bizzi. When I looked closer at her I realised it was Romy. I couldn’t tell it was her because she didn’t have the lump on her face. She looked back at me and seemed so happy. I turned to tell Jason the good news (in the dream) but when I looked back she was gone. The little rascal“.
Romy leaves behind a very sad Bizzi & Starlight, not to mention Kerrigan & Jason but, for sure, she is now happy & running free again with Archie.