Pixie was one of a litter of eight small puppies, looking exactly like her.  They were born on a cold and windy morning in a town called Gaborone. This town is situated in Southern Africa in a country called Botswana. Now if you know anything about Africa, you’ll know that it often has areas which are almost like deserts – little rain most of the year, extreme heat and dust, and lots and lots of yellow sand mixed with small gritted stones.  That’s really what the backyard looked like where Pixie spent her first  months on this earth.  The backyard was fairly safe, because it had a wall all around, and no place for even little dogs to get out. Yet they were not allowed to roam freely, but had to stay in a very small pen.  (I think the owners of the house did not feel like cleaning up doggy poo all over the place).  The only problem was that poor Pixie and her doggy family were forced to step in their own poo, because there was really nowhere else to go!

Their owners just wanted as much money for them as possible, so as soon as the puppies were about three months old, they advertised them in the local newspaper.  The advert read:  “Beautiful, adorable, thorough-bred maltese poodles for sale – P1,500.00” So if you do your calculations,  you’ll see that the six pups made a lot of money for their owners in a short period of time, but still they were not happy.  They needed more money and so, they had two more females to breed and the space in the backyard became smaller and smaller, and the poo became more and more.  Yet, they didn’t care, because the money was rolling in.  That is the sad tale of many dogs that are bred in so-called puppy mills.

One day, a kind lady with friendly green eyes and a lovely smile bought Pixie.  She had two children – a boy and a girl – who chose Pixie.  She was the smallest of her litter and once she got to her new home, she just ate and ate until her stomach looked as if it would burst.  Her new owners wanted to take her immediately to be inoculated, but her hair had already grown quite long, and she had ticks and fleas. The friendly lady called for help.  So, her mother came to the little dog’s assistance, firstly cutting out the biggest and toughest knots.  Then she gave Pixie a bath, using some doggy shampoo suitable for puppies.  Pixie did not like to be bathed or brushed, but I’m sure she felt much better once her fur was lovely and fluffy.  She looked like a real fur ball and the children loved to sit with her on their laps.

Pixie also made friends with a young local dog, who came looking for food everyday. The children called her Chocolate, but she was never allowed to stay overnight, because her owner wanted her at his house.  Next time I’ll tell you more about Pixie and Chocolate.

Thanks for visiting Fauna Park Tales today! Don’t forget to aks your parents about the 2017 Deluxe Colour Edition also called “Flame and Hope”. It contains all the stories from books one and two, and of course, the illustrations are in colour!