ZIGGY
Sarah Colgan
Blenheim Palace
87 x 130 cm
Ziggy arrived in our home as a puppy, not long after we moved to the area from Oxford. Having wanted a dog all my life, I could not have chosen a dog more suited to my personality, he is absolutely my best pal. Named after one of my heroes, the amazing David Bowie, Ziggy is a unique and wonderful companion.
A seven-year-old Irish Setter with all the personality traits you might expect from a Setter, he is incredibly loyal, very smart (when it suits him) and full of energy. He is at his happiest outside playing in the garden or out for a walk. He loves to run and is my training partner as I try to keep fit, regularly joining me at an outdoor exercise class, and is well known to all the class; I fully anticipate he might soon be asked to start paying attendance fees!
Lockdown tails…
We are so fortunate to have had Ziggy with us during lockdown. Like most people it was a sudden and tough change in lifestyle. Ziggy’s joy for life and love of having both of us around all the time was a real lesson on what is important. Having a dog, you must go out and walk him every day, and through lockdown this was so important. It was the break in the stress of the working day, away from zoom calls and an opportunity to really appreciate the beauty of where we are so lucky to live.
I also believe Ziggy brought joy to others, particularly during that tough time. So many people, many of which were total strangers, stopped to pass the time of day and have a brief chat, usually along the lines of; ‘you don’t see many of these dogs anymore’ or ‘I grew up with a Setter and he/she was beautiful and daft’ or, ‘My Gran used to have a Setter’. Ziggy greeted all these strangers with his Setter smile and what we call the full body wiggle.
Ziggy enjoys joining us in the garden where we attempt to exercise. If you try to do sit ups, or any exercise on the mat, he is straight over, either lying on top of you to stop you, dropping a ball on your head or licking your face to check you are still breathing!
When Ziggy was a puppy, about six months old, something spooked him in the garden and he ended up hiding under the raspberry bushes, shaking like a leaf. We didn’t know where he was, and he didn’t bark to let us know he was stuck. After frantically looking everywhere in the garden, through the house, under beds, we decided he must have escaped the garden. My partner John was sent to look for him, going through nearby fields and, according to him, halfway to Chipping Norton. When eventually found, Ziggy was rewarded with John’s fillet steak for dinner, but we don’t like to talk about that incident anymore!
Sarah Colgan