Dog-Gone
Peter Reid
Ardoyne 1972......We were on outpost at Fort Ash, when 'A' Coy rang to say one of their Saracens had hit a dog, and killed it. From the details of the address, the owners lived in the Alliances, in the Proddy side. I rang the owners, and they appeared to be quite elderly and very shocked. No recriminations, but they asked if we found another dog, would we give it to them? "Sure! No sweat!" I chirped back happily, and put the phone down.
Two days later, Lt Chris "D" led a patrol in from Old Park Police Station, for a social visit. Tagging on to the end of the patrol (this often happened) was a dog. The perfect dog. A pretty little black and white puppy. Pup was friendly, but rather grubby, and so into the bath he went, out, dried, and into a Landrover for immediate delivery.
You might remember there were two Proddies, an elderly ex-WW2 soldier called Pops, and the other was a very pretty lady whose name I forget. They were both very friendly to us. Anyway, they heard about the incident, and told us the pup was well settled in, and its new owners over the moon. Job well done.
12 days later we were rotated back to Fort Ash. We'd just settled in, and sorted the stags, when the phone rang.
"Is yers the Lieutenant who gave us the dog?"
"Yes!"
"Well, will yers take him away?"
"Why? - I heard you were happy with him"
"Well, the focker had worms so bad, he's daid."
End of 8 platoons diplomatic reputation. |
