I have known of Arthur for over twenty years as he has lived in the next street to me all of that time. We live in St Micheals Hamlet, which sounds very rustic but it is an inner city area of Liverpool consisting of six short roads with one entry and exit. If you walk a lot as I do, you inevitably get to recognise lots of your neighbours, similarly Arthur generally walks or cycles. He cuts a distinctive figure, particularly when dressed in his St Johns Ambulance uniform, a grey serge suit, matching peak cap and canvas shoulder bag slung across his person. I often saw him stopping to chat with other neighbours or waving hello’s from his bike.
In recent years we have become better acquainted as he has taken to walking his neighbours dogs. Initially he walked Leo, a rather grumpy old mongrel who had all manner of health problems. He belonged to an elderly couple and had latterly become blind and his walking was restricted, he sadly died some months ago. More recently Arthur is seen out with a rather handsome young Aquita called Fifi and he roams miles with his young charge. Even by the standards of friendliness offered by most dog-owners Arthur’s greetings were over and above. He would be guaranteed to make an almighty fuss of my pooch Betty. He would alternately be on all fours getting a good licking from the happy pooch or be cradling her in his arms. He regularly stopped his bike to perform this service. He reckoned Betty was the best kisser of all the dogs in the neighbourhood. Some months ago following one of these exchanges I suggested we should become better acquainted and exchange our names. On hearing my name was Richard, he told me this was his uncles name and he would have no problem remembering that. I would then hear many times in the coming weeks my name being called loudly as Arthur approached.
Since times we have regularly chatted as we walked with our charges swapping stories. So I now have a bit of back story on the man; a bachelor, who lives alone except for his cat, has lived in the same house since 1969 which he had moved to in his early twenties with his family. In addition to his work for St Johns, which he has done for over forty years he has also been the warden of Gateacre Unitarian Church for many decades. He has been retired from work as an engineer for about five years allowing him many opportunities for travelling around and seeing whats going on in the neighbourhood and further afield.
When I told him about the Pets and Pals project I was working on he seemed very curious and shared my belief in the powerful healing abilities of dogs. In addition as I was at that time recruiting volunteers to help organise an event in the park to promote the project I invited him along to the next planning meeting. It would be fair to say that as a group we were a little unsure about pulling off this event, the first of its kind and we were pretty well versed in the things that could go wrong. When Arthur arrived at the meeting, his insistence on his kisses from Betty before any business to discuss and the evident thrill that this resulted was a great antidote to the seriousness that had become to characterise the meetings. He came to a number of subsequent meetings and continued to lighten discussions, always got his Betty kisses before anything else.
So to the day itself, he arrived bang on time, had his first aide equipment with him but immediately began to mucked in, setting up the site, tents, tables etc. He was particularly focused on welcoming other volunteers to the site, friendliness offered with flattery, handshakes, kissings of hands for the humans, pats, “kisses” and games of fetch and chase for the dogs.
As co-ordinator on the day I didn’t need to guide or advise him at all and my attentions were focused elsewhere although if I replay a remembered soundtrack of the day I can hear his whoops of enthusiasm at intervals throughout. When it came to the penultimutt(sic) event of the day, the “Owner most like their dog” competition and I was wondering who could judge it Arthur came to mind. He was well up for it, “more than happy”. I offered him a megaphone; he declined and set to work addressing the assembled audience of thirty or so people. Pacing backwards and forwards amongst this throng he set out the rules of the event and how important the judges decision is final. And so to the judging, with help from Will who was recording the scoring he was a study in seriousness, examining the entries through narrowed eyes and pursed lips. And so to the final decision, in ascending order, every one was waiting breathlessly on the outcome, it was a master class, no mistake.
I think Arthur will reveal lots more hidden talents to me in the months and years to come. We had a the Dogs Trust join us at the event and their representative on the day, Amie, commented on how much she had enjoy the day and made a point of mentioning how lively and enthusiastic we all were. No names mentioned but in conversation at a later date with Arthur he did mention that he thought the lady from the Dogs Trust was “an absolute cracker!” you draw your own conclusions…..
Pictures from the day can be seen at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hnoaf8c12vb1ap2/AADT5TiL9nGdXFuS0GSjUazqa?dl=
In recent years we have become better acquainted as he has taken to walking his neighbours dogs. Initially he walked Leo, a rather grumpy old mongrel who had all manner of health problems. He belonged to an elderly couple and had latterly become blind and his walking was restricted, he sadly died some months ago. More recently Arthur is seen out with a rather handsome young Aquita called Fifi and he roams miles with his young charge. Even by the standards of friendliness offered by most dog-owners Arthur’s greetings were over and above. He would be guaranteed to make an almighty fuss of my pooch Betty. He would alternately be on all fours getting a good licking from the happy pooch or be cradling her in his arms. He regularly stopped his bike to perform this service. He reckoned Betty was the best kisser of all the dogs in the neighbourhood. Some months ago following one of these exchanges I suggested we should become better acquainted and exchange our names. On hearing my name was Richard, he told me this was his uncles name and he would have no problem remembering that. I would then hear many times in the coming weeks my name being called loudly as Arthur approached.
Since times we have regularly chatted as we walked with our charges swapping stories. So I now have a bit of back story on the man; a bachelor, who lives alone except for his cat, has lived in the same house since 1969 which he had moved to in his early twenties with his family. In addition to his work for St Johns, which he has done for over forty years he has also been the warden of Gateacre Unitarian Church for many decades. He has been retired from work as an engineer for about five years allowing him many opportunities for travelling around and seeing whats going on in the neighbourhood and further afield.
When I told him about the Pets and Pals project I was working on he seemed very curious and shared my belief in the powerful healing abilities of dogs. In addition as I was at that time recruiting volunteers to help organise an event in the park to promote the project I invited him along to the next planning meeting. It would be fair to say that as a group we were a little unsure about pulling off this event, the first of its kind and we were pretty well versed in the things that could go wrong. When Arthur arrived at the meeting, his insistence on his kisses from Betty before any business to discuss and the evident thrill that this resulted was a great antidote to the seriousness that had become to characterise the meetings. He came to a number of subsequent meetings and continued to lighten discussions, always got his Betty kisses before anything else.
So to the day itself, he arrived bang on time, had his first aide equipment with him but immediately began to mucked in, setting up the site, tents, tables etc. He was particularly focused on welcoming other volunteers to the site, friendliness offered with flattery, handshakes, kissings of hands for the humans, pats, “kisses” and games of fetch and chase for the dogs.
As co-ordinator on the day I didn’t need to guide or advise him at all and my attentions were focused elsewhere although if I replay a remembered soundtrack of the day I can hear his whoops of enthusiasm at intervals throughout. When it came to the penultimutt(sic) event of the day, the “Owner most like their dog” competition and I was wondering who could judge it Arthur came to mind. He was well up for it, “more than happy”. I offered him a megaphone; he declined and set to work addressing the assembled audience of thirty or so people. Pacing backwards and forwards amongst this throng he set out the rules of the event and how important the judges decision is final. And so to the judging, with help from Will who was recording the scoring he was a study in seriousness, examining the entries through narrowed eyes and pursed lips. And so to the final decision, in ascending order, every one was waiting breathlessly on the outcome, it was a master class, no mistake.
I think Arthur will reveal lots more hidden talents to me in the months and years to come. We had a the Dogs Trust join us at the event and their representative on the day, Amie, commented on how much she had enjoy the day and made a point of mentioning how lively and enthusiastic we all were. No names mentioned but in conversation at a later date with Arthur he did mention that he thought the lady from the Dogs Trust was “an absolute cracker!” you draw your own conclusions…..
Pictures from the day can be seen at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hnoaf8c12vb1ap2/AADT5TiL9nGdXFuS0GSjUazqa?dl=