You’ve heard mums say of their children “it’s lucky they’re cute”, implying jokingly that they might have evicted them if the ‘good behaviour’ criteria box was the only one that needed ticking in the search for an ideal flatmate.
The same is possibly true for puppies like Tillie Henderson’s American Staffordshire terrier, Jersey.
Despite the illusion her floppy oversized ears might cast, Tillie said they don’t listen very well.
Jersey is the 18-year-old dog lover’s first dog she’s owned independently. You could say she’s graduated from being a ‘big sister’ to a ‘mum’ after her family has collectively owned dogs her whole life.
Becoming an adult in January opened doors to many new experiences for the graduating Year 12 student.
Car licence: check. Pub entry: check. Electoral vote: check. Pet ownership: check.
But more than just the rite of passage of taking on these new grown-up responsibilities, what mostly inspired the new addition to the family home was seeing their other dog Axel, an American bulldog-boxer, grieving the loss of his little mate Scout, a Patterdale terrier, to snakebite last year.
“I got Jersey as a friend for Axel,” Tillie said.
“She had to sleep in my room for the first week because she didn’t want to be friends with Axel at first, even though he did.
“Now they’re the best of friends and she sleeps in his kennel with him.”
Tillie welcomed the puppy, who came from a litter of 11, at 16 weeks old, just before her exams started.
The tan-coloured bounding bundle was a great distraction from any stress the exams might have brought.
“It was so exciting to get her, it was the best,” Tillie said.
A stress reliever on one side of the coin, she has brought a different (potentially amusing, once it’s in hindsight) attitude on the other.
“She likes to rip stuff up, that’s her thing,” Tillie said.
“Her personality is chaos. So chaos. And she’s cheeky.
“She’s also a little bit dumb, not the smartest thing in the world.”
With a lot still to learn, she has already mastered a few endearing traits by being surrounded by a family of six, including Tillie’s parents and three younger sisters, and another dog.
She loves kids and humans in general (I can vouch, I got many kisses and love nibbles during my visit).
In contrast to Axel, who tries to make friends with all the cows and horses in the neighbourhood, she doesn’t care much for other animals, which saves them from her smothering affection.
That remains reserved for Axel and their haphazard play-fighting throughout their large yard.
When Axel has had enough, but Jersey — so named because she’s the colour of a Jersey caramel — still has energy to spend, she cashes it in by rolling solo on the ground and growling at herself.
Other little quirks include lounging on top of unconventional things such as tree stumps, flipping and somersaulting clumsily, and taking the liberty to let her mate Axel off to play by chewing through his leash when he’s been temporarily tied up.
“She has chewed through three leashes already,” Tillie said.
So, even if she’d finished her course of necessary puppy vaccinations to make walkies anywhere away from home safe, Jersey has shot herself in one of her own four feet.
Hopefully for her own sake — and her owner’s purse — she’ll have grown out of that habit by the time she’s fully immunised.