Eliot

Parents: border collie and springer spaniel. Grandparents: unknown but possibly a setter in there somewhere!
Eliot is a contented and lively twice rescued dog who is now on his third name!
He was born in the rescue centre Assisi and registered as "Timmy".
As a 'cute' puppy his first home was a 'land rover/green wellie' city family who returned him after nine months. They'd called him "Diesel" and by that stage he'd grown tall and, apparently ignored most of the time , he was also fairly well out of control!
For the next three months he enjoyed Assisi's hospitality with a few trial visits to homes ... but always returned with "you couldn't do anything with him". So Assisi had almost accepted the fact that Diesel would remain with them for ever and they put one last picture in the local paper in the hope that someone would take pity on the now one year old dog.
I did. But first I had to prove to Assisi that I could handle him ... they didn't want another failed home visit. So every day I turned up at the refuge and walked this gorgeous dog ... boy was he hard to hold! Already he was beginning to answer to another name! To me he was "Eliot" ... my poet and my inspiration.
A successful home visit happened and the day came when Assisi, perhaps a little reluctantly, allowed Eliot to leave.
Well ... for six weeks I was driven up the walls. Furniture was torn apart, a radiator knocked off its brackets, doors scratched and, worst of all, brand new shoes eaten! But for the sense of failure that it would have given me the poor distressed dog would have been returned to the centre.
Gradually his fear of land rovers eased and vanished, little by little he became accustomed to my way of life, and he quickly enjoyed the trips out in the car as well as the walks on nearby beaches. Eliot became mine!
Now, he follows me around, allows me to brush him for hours (if I had the energy to do it) and is quite happy to watch land rovers drive past without any reaction.
He's a clown, he makes me laugh and I've no regrets even when I look at the hairs that are everywhere!