Monday 12 March 2012

Here's hoping Buster the sniffer-dog has a long and happy retirement




Looking for any channel that wasn't covering the story about the US soldier who went mad and started shooting innocent Afghans (after all, that's the Taliban's job), I happened upon More4's coverage of this year's Cruft's. I stayed for the whole of the Friends For Life award section, which got the old waterworks going instantly. The winner was Buster, an eight-year old springer spaniel sniffer dog who, having completed five tours of duty with the RAF, during which his olfactory talents saved many lives, is heading for retirement in Cyprus with RAF Police Sergeant Michael Barrow.

There were five wonderful dogs up for the award: I'm guessing the public voted for Buster because of his terrific personality and the vital nature of his work. May he inhabit a veritable doggy heaven for the rest of his life. I wish the same for Obi, a police dog whose skull was fractured by a brick thrown by some lumo of faeces in human form in London during the riots last August. It was the photo of Obi as a six-week old puppy in the following video that set me off:



There's a good article about this year's Friends For Life award on the official Cruft's site, which you can read here.

What splendid creatures dogs are.

2 comments:

  1. What an excellent post! It was uplifting in a way that your previous post about sexual degenerates was depressing.

    I have a chum called Maisie who is a Springer Spaniel who comes for visits and I cannot imagine a better-natured dog. No matter where you hide the dog treats she can locate them in under 15-seconds. An Alsatian's capacity for loyalty is well-documented [ an instinct they share with Tory politicians?].

    Because of this post I would like - in the same spirit as Ms Chakrabarti forgave Mark Oaten on our behalf - to retract all my previous remarks about the Fumigators.

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  2. My personal favourite Springer Spaneil is called Lark and he lives in Cornwall. He sports blond highlights on the crown of his head which make him look like a surfer dude, and he'll love you forever as long as you keep throwing that bloody ball.

    I had stopped recording music following your vicious criticisms, but will start again now that they no longer apply - and you will only have yourelf to blame.

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