Chaka was born in Twickenham, West London April 21, 1992. His birth was marked by Union Jack flags being flown on shops, offices and Government buildings all over the UK, and multi-gun salutes fired by the various armed services. He shares his birthday with the Queen, not that that has anything to do with the celebrations, I’m sure.
We first met when he was three weeks old, just after Sammy, my first Cocker, had died, and I was looking for a new puppy to help fill a little of the huge gap that had been left in my life. Chaka is completely black, so we wanted a ‘black’ name for him. My sister’s husband was at the time reading a book about Chaka, the Zulu Chief who was credited with uniting all the Zulu tribes in South Africa.
This ‘other’ Chaka had many wives and a great love of good food, and my Chaka seemed determined to live up to the name.
Chaka was one of two boys in a litter of eight puppies. He started his life as he meant to go on with it, surrounded by ladies.
It was about this time also that he discovered the other passion in his life -- food. He constantly harassed his mother for milk, and when he was weaned he was always the first up to the food bowl, eating his own and anybody else’s food he could find.
His breeder said he turned all the other puppies into good eaters because they had to be or they’d get no food.
Chaka was also a great escape artist. The breeder had an escape-proof pen in her garden for the puppies to play in, and Chaka always managed to find a way out of it and into the shrubs for a good sniff. We considered calling him Houdini, but the name Chaka won in the end.
When he came home with me, Chaka soon discovered the enormous fun to be found in chasing cats. I had three cats in those days, Eric, Ossie and Mango, and they spent the first few weeks after Chaka’s arrival almost permanently airborne as they made their way around the house via the tops of the furniture.
When he was four, Chaka faced the greatest challenge of his life -- the arrival of the eight-week-old Beaubo. He coped very well with Beaubo’s constant demands to play, quickly realising that if he played with him vigorously enough he would soon fall asleep, and Chaka would get some peace and quiet.
As Beaubo grew up he became very protective of Chaka, always ready to fight off any dog who so much as looks the wrong way at him. Chaka takes full advantage of this, looking for Beaubo at the first sign of trouble and barking crossly if Beaubo fails to turn up immediately.
Chaka will be eleven on his next birthday. There is a little grey showing through the black but he is still the same loving, affectionate, loyal dog he’s always been. He complains about Beaubo from time to time, but in the main they get along well -- he’s still chasing the cats though. |
