A terriers smile




      Not exactly a winning smile but it has a certain roguish and also a malevolent quality to it. Is it friendly or simply, 'keep out, it's none of your business', we'll never know? But whenever Lucie and Fizz are barrelling around mock fighting the expression is the same, all incisor teeth and canines.
      On this occasion I caught them both in my little studio room trying to look innocent of any crime or mischief, it didn't work, because they'd both been stealing feathers and paper to shred. It's what they do, you need a third eye to watch them and be very suspicious when everything goes quiet.
      That silence means mischief and trouble. Not forgetting destruction. We've had Jack Russell Terriers eat the routine things like clothing, socks, gloves, bits of fishing tackle (not hooks), watercolour brushes, pencils, wallets, bank cards, paper money, well the list just goes on and on.
      The most outstanding consumption was by Rufus, our Jack Russell/Border Terrier cross, who lived until the ripe old age of seventeen years and six months. He ate two 12 guage cartridges on separate occasions and passed them through his system.
      They both contained Number 5 shot.