Perfectly Ordinary People(126)

One day a nearby farmer retired and, because he knew farmer Jean was so poor, he gave him eight sheep to add to his flock, and along with them, his own patou, Charlie.

It was only when Butch saw Charlie for the first time that he realised why he’d always felt so alone. Because he wasn’t a sheep after all! He was a patou, just like Charlie.

Well, as you can imagine, Charlie and Butch were much happier together. While the sheep were grazing they’d frolic around the edges of the field, barking. They’d snap at butterflies in summer, and on cold winter nights they’d huddle together and keep warm.

But Charlie, who’d grown up with brothers and sisters, wanted something more. Charlie wanted a puppy of his own.

Now because both Butch and Charlie were boy-dogs, making a puppy together was impossible. A puppy was the one thing Charlie wanted, and it was the only thing Butch couldn’t give him.

Still, they did their best to be contented, working to look after the sheep. But occasionally Butch would catch Charlie staring into the distance, and he could tell that Charlie was dreaming about the puppy he’d never have.

One summer’s day – there was a gentle breeze fanning the leaves – Butch heard barking coming from a far corner of the field. Worried there might be some kind of danger to the sheep, he bounded across the field, only to discover a tiny puppy beneath a bush on the other side of the fence. The puppy looked dirty and hungry, so Butch barked loudly until Charlie and the farmer came over to see what was wrong.

‘Where did you come from, little one?’ farmer Jean said, reaching over the fence and scooping the muddy bundle up in his arms. The tiny puppy licked the farmer’s face, making him laugh.

Butch noticed that Charlie behaved strangely. He didn’t bark, and he didn’t whine. He simply stared at the puppy like he wanted to eat him, and as the farmer crossed the field, taking the puppy home, Charlie followed him at heel, never letting the puppy out of his sight. When the farmer passed through the gate to the house, Charlie sat watching through the fence, and when the farmer vanished inside the house, Charlie sat and stared at the front door.

For three whole days, Charlie didn’t move from that spot. He wouldn’t eat or drink or help with the sheep, so Butch had to do everything alone. And because it seemed as if Charlie was more interested in the puppy than he was in his own best friend, Butch ended up feeling jealous and sad.

On the fourth day, the farmer opened the front door and crossed the garden. In his arms he was holding the little dog, tiny and still a bit thin, but now clean and fluffy after a bath.

Standing behind the gate, farmer Jean smiled down at Charlie. ‘Is it this chap you’re waiting for?’ he asked, and Charlie wagged his tail. ‘Well, is it?’ he asked again, and this time Charlie rolled on to his back and kicked his legs in the air.

The farmer laughed. ‘Well, let’s see what sort of parent you are,’ he said, and he leaned over the gate to place the puppy on the ground. ‘I’ve called him Gooseberry,’ he said. ‘After all, you did find him under a bush.’

Charlie started licking him immediately, and Gooseberry barked and wagged his tail in delight.

‘Don’t let him bother the sheep!’ the farmer said, and Charlie barked in a complex way, doing his best to convey that of course he wouldn’t let him bother the sheep. After all, he was a patou!

Because he feared that Charlie loved Gooseberry more than he loved him, Butch felt nervous about their newly expanded family. But as time went by, he discovered something important: that love isn’t like a cake. It doesn’t get smaller when you give bits of it away. Love is more like a tree. The more you nurture it, the bigger it grows. So though Charlie had nothing but love to give to Gooseberry, it was a kind of love that grew so big it spilled over into his relationship with Butch, nourishing them all.

No one ever found out where Gooseberry had come from, but in the end they were all thankful he’d appeared, because he made their lives complete.

From that day on the three dogs, Butch, Charlie and Gooseberry, were inseparable. Charlie and Butch finally had everything they’d ever wanted, the love and friendship they provided to each other, a big, woolly sheep family to keep them warm on cold winter nights, and an excitable puppy they could raise as their own.

So you see, it wasn’t the story of a lonely sheepdog after all. It was the story of three of the happiest dogs on the planet.





AUTHOR’S NOTE

Though this novel is a work of fiction the original concept was inspired by the brave testimony of Pierre Seel (1923–2005), the only French homosexual to have testified about his experience of deportation.

Unlike the Pierre described within the pages of this novel, Pierre Seel did not escape Alsace but was tortured and deported to Vorbruck-Schirmeck concentration camp, where he was starved and horrifically mistreated. While there he was made to witness the murder of his lover, Jo, killed by guard dogs, and on release was forcibly enlisted in the German army and sent to fight on the Russian Front. His tragic life story is told in I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual: A Memoir of Nazi Terror, a recommended read for anyone wishing to know more. Also recommended is Branded by the Pink Triangle by Ken Setterington, along with the excellent documentary Paragraph 175, which is available from multiple streaming services.