My Best Friend 'Tucker"

by Justine
(Australia)

Tucker is supposed to be a Maltese Shitzu Cross – but he doesn’t seem to have much Shitzu in him – he doesn’t have a mashed up face.

He’s 12 years old and has been my little companion all this time. He was born a chocolate brown colour and has aged (grey) over time (like a fine wine). He grew up in a newsagent for the first three years of his life – coming to work every day with me and my partner – in a backpack on a motorbike down the freeway doing 120kms/hr. We used to get some funny looks sometimes cos his head would be sticking out of the backpack. It was a miracle he never got trod on at the newsagent as there were 3 of us serving behind a counter in a space of about 2 meters x 2 meters! He just amused himself by chewing on the old fashioned film canisters (which if even now he sees a film canister he goes crazy for it – kinda like he does with corks from a bottle!). He managed to keep himself out of harm’s way. The newsagent was in the City of Perth and we had loads and loads of people come in every day just to visit him, take him for walks, buy him toys and treats and one guy even set up a webpage dedicated to Tucker alone!

Later on in life he was a lonely boy cos Mum used to work 12 – 13 hours 5 days a week and usually 6 hours on a Saturday and Sunday – so he didn’t have much of a life – very sad. Then Mum decided to leave the rat race and come to sunny Cairns and now Tucker is the Gecko catching champion of FNQ! (well not really – he’s only ever caught 2 that I know of – but he thinks he’s a champion!)