Ringo

I don't remember the cause of Devil's death since my last visit home the previous summer.

Life was quite hard for dogs and both Devil and Ringo were "rescue" dogs and so probably didn't have the best start in life. Dogs were subject to all sorts of disease and pests, ticks being everywhere and many reports of dogs having been infected by disease transmitted from blood-sucking bats that would latch on to them at night if they slept outdoors.

This was my only holiday with Ringo. Named by me naturally after the Beatles drummer who were storming the world back then.

Ringo was sadly to die not much later having swallowed a large marble that got stuck in his stomach blocking off the intestines. Xrays for dogs were not common for people back then let alone dogs.

I think my mother was so grief-stricken that she said no more dogs. Probably a sensible move anyway as every second year they were in the UK for 2 months and finding friends to look after the dog was getting more difficult as the company was running down operations and friends being repatriated to the UK or sent off to other parts of the globe.