AMORE
Aleksandra Sliwa-Sopilnik
Town Hall steps, Market Place
30 x 45 cm
Amore, a beautiful Maltese and Shih Tzu Crossbreed, turned three this year. He is a wonderful part of our family.
Over time, we learnt that Amore can quickly identify what mood we are in. He always knows the right time to cheer us up and when we need him by our side. He stays quiet when we are asleep and knows when it is the right time to greet us in the morning by stretching on us and wagging his tail. He is a loving, loyal dog, but he is very energetic when running and playing with his friends, which makes us all laugh and we would not change him for the world.
We have learnt a lot from our little boy and because of him we are all fitter and healthier, bringing us closer as a family. Although he is small, he is an extremely adventurous dog who loves exploring different places, and even climbs trees! He definitely wants to do everything we do (like sliding down slides!) – he is like our own mini fitness trainer! We are so glad that he is a part of our life because he is not just our dog, he is our best friend and part of our family forever.
Lockdown tails…
When lockdown struck, one thing was clear – many of us turned to our pets to help endure this challenging time. Lockdown would have been very difficult for us without Amore’s love and support to help us cope through this tough time in our life. Many people struggled with lockdown because they were isolated in their home away from everyone.
For us, having Amore by our side really helped as we could still enjoy the luxury of nature when we went for a walk in quieter areas of Woodstock. Having the ability to meet and chat with other dog owners also certainly helped.
Initially, Amore took the role of our guide, to be both our hope and our light in the dark, something that really helped us through this period. As always, he did a very good job at both these roles! While we were at home, when I was working and my two kids were learning online, if one of us was feeling down or under the weather, Amore would cuddle and reassure by playing and distracting us from what was happening in the world. My kids also distracted themselves during lockdown by teaching Amore new tricks and commands to keep themselves busy and it made me and my husband proud to see all the tricks our dog had learnt. For us, our dog was definitely team captain during lockdown as he was always happy to help with jobs around the house.
Amore loves to run after us when we are cycling. One day on a normal cycling trip, we stumbled across a field full of donkeys grazing on the grass. Little did we know that Amore was slick enough to slip under the fence and started straight for the donkeys! We were freaking out as he ran straight for them because there was no way for any of us to get under or over that fence. We watched helplessly as our dog started zooming like crazy round a herd of donkeys who were chasing after him as an attempt to try and scare him away. We thought he might get trodden on as he was so small and the donkeys were 10 times his size but luckily while he was zooming around, he slipped back under the fence right before the donkeys could do any harm. We hoped this was a one off but when we tried to put his lead on he dashed right under the gate to play with the donkeys once again as he thought it was a game of tag, but fortunately he came back to us soon after.
I honestly don't think that we could live without this intelligent little soul, and I hope we can take him on many more of our adventures in the future and that he lives his life to the fullest.
Aleksandra Sliwa-Sopilnik