Sylvain and Annie were with us for 6 months until they found jobs and accomodation in the Dordogne but they were unable to take Rambo with them. At that time we had Titi and Luna and were not intending to take on any other dogs but knowing that Rambo was such a nice, well behaved chap we offered to have him.
He was quite a big dog of mixed breeding, his mother looked like a black labrador and his father was unknown but we suspect that he had some Beauceron blood in him as he displayed many facets of that breed. As he had always lived out of doors we made a bed for him in the old house next to our house and he soon made that his home.. He got on well with Luna and put up with Titi! Although he could have wandered off he never showed any desire to leave the immediate area of the house. He enjoyed walks, with us,through our fields and up into our woods but never had the desire to go off on his own. He became a firm favourite with all our visitors and would leap over the gate onto the track if he heard a car coming down from the road.
Eventually Titi died and Luna and Rambo became firm friends. In 2007 both Rambo and Luna made the move to Castandet with us leaving behind the freedom of our 20 hectares of Ariege. Thankfully they both settled well in their new home and Rambo finally became a "house" dog. Strangely, as he had never been in a house before, he soon made his favourite resting place at the top of the stairs leading up to our attic. The garden here is not fenced but is bounded by hedges and Luna, our resident escapologist, soon discovered places where she could squeeze through and Rambo, of course, followed. Luckily this didn't happen too often but they did both get in the habit of going up our paddock, at the back of the house, nipping over the bank to our neighbours and paying them a visit. Thankfully Jeanne and Christel were only too happy to see them and give them a titbit beofre sending them back home.Sadly Luna became diagnosed with diabetes in 2008 and in 2009 it was time to say goodbye to her and bury her in the garden.
Rambo now became top dog and soon became an international traveller too as we took him to Devon for Christmas 2009. He travelled well and seemed unconcerned at being left in the car for the ferry crossing. At Steve and Sasa's he soon became firm friends with their dog Scout, a female Springer spaniel, and enjoyed many walks around the fields. Scout was much too fast for him and he soon gave up trying to keep up with her though.
Then he was back again to Devon for Christmas 2010 and also for another couple of months whilst we went to New Zealand. My friend Titch had kindly offered to look after him for the duration. Once again he travelled well and was thrilled, when we arrived at Titch's to find the ground covered in thick snow in which he revelled in rolling. He apparently had a good stay there having a long walk with Titch each morning and on days when she was out he was walked by her neighbour, Amanda, who fell in love with him. Amanda took him to a dog show where he scooped 3 prizes, Best Veteran, Most Handsome and Judge's Favourite. We were happy to find him looking so fit and well when we returned at the end of March. We had a few days with Steve and Sasa and Rambo resumed his friendship with Scout.
Back home Rambo soon resumed his morning visits to Jeanne and Christel who were thrilled to see him safely back home. We went to Ariege at the beginning of August for a few days, to stay with Martin and Meike. Rambo had an uneasy relationshiip with their dog, Chai. At their first meeting a couple of years previously they had had a fight disputing who was going to lie in front of the house door. It seemed that Rambo won as he claimed that position and ever afterwards they kept their distance and Chai seemed to know that when Rambo arrived he had to give up his place. All was well for a couple of days but on the Saturday night, on the day before we were due to leave, Rambo didn't eat his evening meal. By Sunday morning he was very quiet and we were concerned about him wondering if it was perhaps tick fever (piroplasmosis). We called at friends, Kate and Peter's, for lunch on the way back and Rambo did eat a little left over steak but was definitely not himself.
I rang the vet on Monday morning and took Rambo in first thing. A quick check allayed my fears re the tick fever and the vet could not find anything specifically wrong but took a sample of blood. We called at the vet in the evening, on the way to see friends, and he gave us the bad news that Rambo's kidneys were failing and were only working at 20% efficiency. By Tuesday morning it was obvious that he was a very sick dog and after phoning the vet there was only one solution. I had to take him in for his final visit on the Tuesday afternoon and the hours in between seemed intereminable as Rambo laid beside me. His eyes looked so sad and he didn't want to move. Finally the time came and he got in the car for his last trip. I stayed with him until the end, heartbreaaking but the right thing to do to allay any further suffering and I said goodbye to him for the last time. Once again one of our dogs has had to leave us, it is always a heartrending situation
