Dogs do many things – they fetch balls, dig holes and bark. One Greenhills dog climbs trees.
Toffie is the pride and joy of Naomi and Werner de Beer. The couple’s son found him opposite their home in a veld under leaves and branches. Naomi then took Toffie in and bottle-fed him back to health. He was found with another puppy but unfortunately it was not strong enough to pull through.
After nursing him back to health, Toffie suffered another blow and caught cat flu. Naomi said he developed swelling between his shoulders where he was injected, which had to be rubbed every day for a month before it went away.
He’s been to hell and back,” Werner said.
He is one of the family’s seven dogs and is not the family’s first rescue. Most of the animals they have had to date have been rescued and have lived long lives with them.
Toffie is now eight months old and still believes he is as small as the day Naomi and Werner found him. Every now and then he climbs into the tree closest to their gate to spy on the neighbours’ dogs as well as to scrutinise any passers-by.
The couple explains how he lives both in and outside their home and when they’re in bed, he gives them puppy eyes while resting his head on his paws. “He’ll look at you and nudge you with his nose until you tell him he can get onto the bed, but then he wants to be picked up and put on the bed because he thinks he’s a baby,” Naomi said.
On Toffie’s tree climbing the couple said one day he just started climbing one of their trees. He also has a favourite high tree stump he likes to jump and sit on.
“Whoever threw him away is missing out,” Naomi said.
Do you have any animals at home that do amazing or strange things? Let us know via an email to roxydv@caxton.co.za.
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