POODLE

Yesterday I heard the sad news that my children’s poodle, Rolo, had been killed when hit by a train after he had scurried down an embankment presumably after a rabbit. Rolo was great enthusiast for food although in recent months, on a strictly controlled diet, had managed to lose several pounds and to shed the epithet, ‘Porky Poodle’ perhaps unkindly bestowed on him by my wife.

But whether porky or not, Rolo always maintained a sailor’s gait (although his name derived not from that but from his colouring which resembled the well-known sweet). And this gentle sway when walking, belied the fact that he was – when food in the form of game: rabbits or pigeons, was in the offing – as a quick as a Welsh wing three quarter when the try line was in sight.

Rolo’s speed from a standing start was matched only by his speed (and enthusiasm) for getting whichever creature he had just dispatched down his mouth before someone could – at some peril to themselves – attempt to take it away from him. Indeed there had been a couple of occasions when the first thing anyone knew that he caught something was the sound of small bones be enthusiastically crunched.

Poodles are intelligent dogs and Rolo was no exception. But he wasn’t the first intelligent one I’ve known. My first doggy memories are of my father’s black poodle, Jasper (a name which led me until no more than three days ago to think that the stone ‘jasper ‘ was black rather than shades of russet). And Jasper, whose portrait hangs in Oxford (as does Rolo’s – but in a different house) led me to be fond of ‘Nigger’, Guy Gibson’s dog and of the standard poodle, Coco so wonderfully described by Dilys Powell in her book of the same name.

Jasper, I assume but don’t remember, died or was put down at in old-age and Coco was still alive at the time of writing and so fades into literary eternity. Rolo, however, has been cut off in his prime and will be much missed. Unlike my dog, Scuffle, Rolo was the head of his household which manifested itself, for example, in his constant effort to be higher – physically higher – than anyone else and to ensure that his favourite chair was his alone.

His favourite chair is now be empty.