Holsworthy dog’s claim to fame in latest book launch

Crikey, my picture's in the paper again! This time in the Bude & Stratton Post (16 February, 2012 edition).

In case you don't have your glasses, it says:

With Uggie, the canine star of ‘The Artist’ being nominated for a Golden Collar Award. could it be the turn of a Holsworthy dog to win a canine Booker Prize?

In Home Thoughts On Abroad, which has just been published, a 12-year old collie called Chloe has ‘written’ about her life since being transported from her five-acre home in Gidgegannup in the bush near Pert, Western Australia, where she had spent the first seven years of her life, to her new home in North Road, Holsworthy.

Her owners, Malcolm Orr and his wife Jeanette, who hails from Bude, returned to England in 2007 for family reasons after 27 years in Australia. They had to leave Chloe behind for six months in quarantine until she was able to fly to Heathrow.

Out of gratitude to the neighbours down under who had looked after her, they kept in touch through letters supposedly written by Chloe describing how she was adapting to her new life. Until arriving in Holsworthy, she had never lived in a street nor been taken out on a lead.

The letters, laced with generous doses of humour and Australian slang, were so enjoyed by his friends that Malcolm was persuaded to go into print. An enjoyable read for all dog lovers, it was published at the end of January. Copies, priced at £4.99, are available from the Holsworthy Information Centre and all good bookshops.


(Don't forget: Home Thoughts On Abroad is available from Amazon, Waterstones, W H Smith, The Book Depository, Hive, Lovereading, Mighty Ape (Australia) or direct from the publishers Austin & Macauley at a £4.79.)

The price of fame!

Greetings to my friends and fans,

                                                        

Well what do you know? Who would have thought that a Bitzer from the bush would become the glamour girl of Gidge. Yes my recently published book has brought me all the trappings of fame, well one or two of them anyway. So its goodbye Rin Tin Frigging Tin, you are history sunshine.

Move over and make room for Chloe the Wonder Dog, a new superstar is born.

My humans are running round like headless chooks as a media feeding frenzy descends on our house. Well, perhaps I am letting my Aussie love of a good yarn run away with me a bit. In fact we have had a camera wally from a paper called the North Devon Journal call in and do a bit of a Ron Sullivan, making us all sit in stupid positions which made our bums ache, and then flashing light bulbs at us until we could not see. But I must say the results were quite good though not in the same league as David Bailey O'Sullivan, who immortalised me on several occasions in the good old days in Oz. I gather from a phone conversation earlier today that another snapper from the Cornish Gazette is expected this afternoon for a photo opportunity. I hope my stupid humans are making a decent dollar out of all this and that the added income to the family budget will be reflected in the quality of tucker in my foodbowl.

    

Of course the anticipation that these guys will turn up and start looking at our kennel as a possible future feature for some fancy ideal home magazine, drives her indoors into a frenzy of cleaning, and all possible traces of my messy habits (e.g. dog fur on the Ercol 3 piece suite, bonio biscuits burried down the side of armchairs), have to be eliminated, and my male human is sent off to put clean clothes on (the first time this month).

    

But I digress from my theme (too much listening to her indoors on the phone). The word on my book is out there, and I am confidently expecting a call from Hollywood any moment now. I am also wondering if the Sun will ask me to be a page 3 pin-up feature, but my boss man says my legs are not sexy enough, even with my harness on. He must have funny tastes is all I can say!! Unfortunately the mean buggers have not allowed me to have a mobile phone, so there is no chance of some journo hacking into my private conversations, and me being able to sue them for vast quantities of dog chocs.

    

Of course being a celebrity has its downside.People keep stopping me in the street and asking me daft questions, like how has my life changed since I became famous? Well I have to say sadly it hasn't much. I still get chased off the settee whenever I try to roost there; I still get the same old booring diet of chicken breast and dog biscuits ("No don't give her that, it's too rich!"); I am still banished to the garden if I break wind ("I told you not to give her that rich food!"); and I still get yelled at when I try to give passing seniors with heart conditions a savage serve from the safety of my front garden. Meanwhile my humans seem to be basking in the glory of my success. Her indoors has bought at least three new outfits in case she has to be interviewed on radio, and my boss man sees it as a great opportunity to get stuck into a few bottles of Nigerian Chardonnay.

     

Well thats it for now. We stars have got to get plenty of rest to protect or natural beauty. Someone mentioned the possibility of giving me Botox. If they  are anything like Bonios, I'm all for it, but I have my suspicions that they might involve men in white coats sticking things into me, so I am keeping a low profile on that one.

                                          

Lots of love and licks to everyone.

                                                          

Chloe

Blimey, we're in the papers

Thanks to Mike Southon of the North Devon Journal for printing a picture of me with two other galahs who I see around the house occasionally.

In case you haven't got your reading glasses handy, it says:

A collie cross called Chloe has "written" a book on her adventures from Australia to Holsworthy.

Home Thoughts On Abroad chronicles the 11-year-old dog's journey to England after spending seven years living on a five-acre home in Western Australia.

Her owners, Malcolm and Jeanette Orr, returned to North Devon after 27 years in Australia because of family reasons.

They kept in touch with friends down under who had looked after Chloe during her six months quarantine through a series of letters written from their pet's perspective.

Malcolm said: "The book comprises a series of letters, ostensibly written by her, which from the dog's perspective, tell friends back in Australia of her personal experiences, and of our joint efforts to settle back into a new and very different life here.

"I did not set out to write the letters with a book in mind, but as a means of keeping in touch with some very good friends."

The Red Arrow book, Home Thoughts On Abroad, was published by Austin & Macauley this week.

WRITE STUFF: Malcolm and Jeanette Orr with their dog Chloe.

Picture: Mike Southon. To order this photograph call 0844 4060 269 and quote Ref: BNMS20120131E-002_C