folly, she made me become active for animal rights

folly

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boat to hotel new york, rotterdam

oostkapelle, 2003

at home, with ed

folly and nub

 

 folly is probably one of the best things that happened to me in my life
she was born june 6, 1994 (she died, see below, june 8, 2004)
i knew the breeder (jetty van der hulst) well and she and one of the guys working there (ted, also a friend) all the time told me: "poodles are great", i insisted i wanted a dog..., but not a poodle
we all went to berlin in august 1994 and stayed in a hotel
a puppy poodle, they had brought with them stayed in my room for four days...
after four days i had to let this puppy go: to it's new owners
i was convinced!
the next day i got folly, the sister of the puppy now living in berlin
(not knowing, then, that berlin was to become one of folly's cities, more in 4693 sticks at the bottom of this page)

folly herself had puppies that were born july 16, 1998
it felt as if i had become a father!
moreover because i had also just gotten the young cat nub to live with us
(more about this in 4693 sticks at the bottom of this page)

left, top: folly, 2002
left 2nd from top: on board at rotterdam, summer 1999
left 3rd from top: at meeting of the kolff family, zeeland, june, 2003
left 4th from top: at home with ed, summer 2003
left 5th from top: at home, with nub, summer 2003

folly and i have been spending a lot of time outdoors
folly also accompanied me where ever else i went
her sitting in the middle of a busy city street
heavy traffic on all sides, and she just sits there
relaxed and looking around
in the city, restaurants, crowded or quiet places
she sat in the car, in trams, metro's, trains, or busses
(even in a cable car at chamonix: see folly's travels, at 4693 sticks at the bottom of this page)
at work in the office she accompanied me, or at any other meeting
like those of the voluntary activities that i do
it has all been the usual thing for her, all her life
and she has been happy: wanting to play all the time, at home, with the cats, or in the park with her dog-friends and happy to greet friends, people, dogs or cats, at our home

after she died nub has been looking for folly for days
ed understood: he had been lying with folly for a while after she died

folly, ed, nub
   
unfortunately in march 2004, after several medical checks, it turned out that she had an incurable type of cancer, which started to grow from early 2003 (to my idea, but at that time i did not know, ofcourse; only afterwards i can recall the day the cancer on her pancreas must have started.....)
 

we continued our lives the way we did:
going to the park, meeting friends
- however no more long journeys
(we cancelled our planned trip to berlin in march 2004)

right: april 2004: at the park
right, below: her last day, at home, june 8, 2004

 folly, april 2004
 
and as long as she was not suffering we were still happy together
but it was affecting her body, and it grew on
folly died june 8, 2004 (picture at left: that afternoon)
i gave her some good months before she died		 folly, june 8, 2004
one year after she died i went to clingendael, with her ashes, to spread them on the hill where she so much preferred to sit
a hill from where she could overlook part of the park, and where she spent most of the time on her last day at clingendael
i did this at the exact time she died the year before

i learnt a lot from being ten years with folly
one of the things she learnt me is that i must have a dog to accompany me
so, july 16, 2004, i went to get lotte from the shelter
ofcourse i miss folly, but lotte could only come to live with me if it hadn't been for folly
(more about this in my 'letter to folly', about us together, and to explain about lotte)
4693 sticks leads you to my 10 years experience with folly:
go to 4693 sticks now
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