n 1997 I came to South Africa from New Zealand. I had been living in Scotland for a few years and had met a lot of these ‘Saffa’ people in the UK and it seemed like a good idea, so in August of that year I landed in Cape Town and wow, what a beautiful city! Of course it was different then, in fact I think the whole skyline has changed between then and now! In November 1997 I went on my first Nomad tour, a Cape Town to Vic Falls trip on Janis, the only truck the company owned I was a rather sheltered little kiwi and had no idea Southern Africa had so much to offer, I was hooked.

Fast forward to the end of 1999. At some point in around November I realised that I had started a life here. I was now working in the office, Nomad had many more trucks and somehow we had adopted a stray dog… Well that was it, I had to stay! Puku was named as, being a street dog, she was never, ever, going to turn down food! Puku is a Maori word which pretty much describes your tummy, but somehow implies its rather large. Its a bit like the Afrikaans word boep. Since Puku always ate everything she could find it was appropriate… I remember when someone was cleaning out the tents that had come back from tour to find her eating a dried up lizard that had found its way back to Cape Town, classic Puku!

Puku somehow had her name shortened to Pooh along the way. There are many reasons for this, the results of her eating every piece of garbage she could find is just one, but it was a sweet and endearing name for a very sweet dog.

Back in the old days I used to go in to Cape Town to visit the agents and pick up tour payments (often in cash) and Puku would keep me company. (She thought she was my security guard!) She would sit herself on the front seat of the Nissan Sentra (it was still black back then) and we would zoom down the N1 to visit the backpackers. She was so good with traffic that I never even owned a leash. She’d come trotting along in to the backpackers like she owned the place, wait for me to drop off our flyers and pick up money, or otherwise try to convince someone that Nomad was an awesome company… then we would head back home to base in Bothasig.

For those people who remember back then you will remember that if any guide was naughty, or it was their birthday, or for any reason really, we would throw them in the pool. Puku was not the best dog when this happened, she would get so over excited that she would tuck her bum under her body and tear around and around the pool barking and then usually bite whoever was getting thrown in the pool. Not very nice of her!

In 2003 we moved to Somerset West. That meant that we moved house 3 times in one year, Puku hated it and she hated being locked up, so she started escaping, the only way to solve this was her going back to work with us.

Every day she would go downstairs and wait by the Cruiser to be taken to work. Once there she started her rounds. She never got over being a street dog so she would go and systematically visit every staff member to try to convince them that actually no-one fed her at home and she was starving and please could she have half of your lunch? Those big brown eyes had almost everyone convinced that she was almost starved despite clear evidence to the contrary!

There are so many memories of people asking Puku what they should do. Some work decision needed to be made and they’d lean down and ask her what she thought was best. Its probably not a good idea to let people know that the Nomad dog was responsible for decision making at the office! She probably knew every secret there was to know as well, she was a very good listener and many people would spend their tea or ciggerette break having a quick chat with Pooh.

I had to be the bad-guy so many times, often because she would just get fatter and fatter and I would have to go and ask everyone at Nomad to stop feeding her. But sometimes because she ate something that came back up again, especially as she got older, she was not able to chew up the chop-bones that the Nomad staff kindly brought to work for her. I’m sure many people have received the bi-annual ‘please don’t feed the dog’ internal email over the years!

In December 2011 Puku officially retired from Nomad, it was getting a bit much for her to go in to work every day and she had a few accidents at the office that were less than endearing. So she stayed home each day and mostly chilled on the couch and roamed the garden.

She enjoyed this last summer, she would sit outside in the sun (one of her favourite things) and just soak up the rays. In the afternoons she would still go down to the gate to wait for us to come home and say hello. 17 years is a long time for a dog and I am very happy that all those she spent with us were good ones.

Its a shame we do not yet have a comment feed on this blog, I’d love people to share their memories of Pooh through the years, but if you want to perhaps you can do this on our facebook page?

Puku, you will be missed!

…………………………………

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened. ”

(Anatole France)

…………………………………

“If I have any beliefs about immortality it is that certain dogs I know will go to heaven, and very very few people.”

(James Thurber)

…………………………………

“A pet is never truly forgotten until it is no longer remembered.”

(Lacie Petitto)