AR-News: (UK) Cardboard Chihuahua Helps Ease Dog's Grief

[Snugglezzz at aol.com]

Mon 19 Jan 2004 
  
 
 1:05pm (UK)
Cardboard Chihuahua Helps Ease Dog's Grief 

By Lucy Rodgers, PA News 


A pining Chihuahua dog has been lured out of mourning by a life-size cardboard cut-out of his dead best friend.

Fourteen-inch tall Sandy has spent hours grieving for his old friend Rosie who passed away at the beginning of January.

When she died two weeks ago he slept all day, barely ate and gazed longingly at her neighbouring kennel at his home in Tuffley, Gloucester.

Now Sandy’s owner, Ann Bell, 54, has come up with the perfect solution to her pet’s suffering.

>From his bed in his home-made pink wooden chalet kennel, Sandy, 11, can now see a cardboard cut-out of 15-year-old Rosie to remind him of happier times.

Mrs Bell said: “They got on really well. I loved her and he loved her. When she was gone he just followed me around and looked lost. He was really ill and wouldn’t eat.

” But since the arrival of his new cardboard companion, Sandy’s tail has been wagging again. “

Mrs Bell said: “I know it sounds strange but it seems to have cheered Sandy up. He goes up to it and wags his tail, but cannot understand why she won’t come out and play.” 

However, Mrs Bell, who has the ashes of Rosie along with five of her predecessors in her bedroom, knows that the photocopied photograph will not be a permanent solution for Sandy. 

Instead she is now hunting for a real-life friend to replace Sandy’s temporary cardboard cut-out playmate.

She said: “He is pining for her. He just wants some company and I am now trying to track down a suitable companion.”