WHAT HAPPENED TO FLASH
OLIVE’S TWENTIETH POST
Olive
Morning to you all! Some of you have been worried about me since we’ve been rather quiet lately.
I was feeling bad, real bad, but now I’m right as rain.
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Mike
And I’ve got some more photos for you, Ollie. You’ll be amazed by this one.
Olive
Where’d you find that? ………That’s Barnie and Flash, the German Shepherd we had.
Mike
Some one in the family had it. I blew it up so you could see it.
Olive
Did I even tell you how we’d be playing cards? We’d all be on the bed and Flash would be in the middle. He was our table, yer, see.
Mike
He was big enough to be a card table?
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Olive
Yeah,…. we’d be dealing out the cards onto the dog and getting on with the game, nice and easy, and then suddenly he’d sort of sigh and roll a bit, and all the cards would go everywhere. It was funny.
Mike
Well, it was a pretty silly place to put cards.
Olive
….And we’d say, “Oh Flash, you mucked up the game.” And he’d just look at us….
Mike
Where was that?
Olive
At lewisham (a Sydney suburb) when I was working as a cook at Lewisham hospital.
Mike
That’s another job you didn’t tell me you had, Ollie, You’re always surprising me.
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Olive
I’ll tell you another thing about Flash. Every morning when the milkman came to fill the jug at the door (there was no bottles in those days. You left out a jug) Flash would walk him from the gate to the door and watch him pour the millk.
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Mike
Would he steal some?
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Olive
‘Course not! He’d walk the man back to the gate, and I tell you, if that milko went past our house without filling the jug, Flash would nip him. Oh, he was a wonderful dog.
Mike
What happened to him?
Olive
Well, the woman next door complained that he was savage.
Mike
Was he?
Olive
Not at all! He used to play with the kids in the street, catching their ball for them. Everyone loved that dog, ‘cept her.
Anyway, the police came and they said they’d have to take Flash away. “You can’t do that,” we cried, “he’s our pet!”
Mike
And did they?
Olive
We was crying and carrying on. Flash was whining and carrying on too. Oh, it was terrible. But they did take him away.
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Mike
Did they put him down?
Olive
Oh, no, they trained him to be a police dog. I used ts see him in the street and give him a pat and say, “Hi Flash.” … We kept on his tracks, yer see.
Mike
And?
Olive
Well, about a year later the terrible news came. Flash had lost his life saving a little girl.
This little girl had been crossing the road right in front of a car and Flash’d rushed out and pushed her aside and got rolled himelf
Mike
That’s sad. How did you find out?
Olive
The police came and told us personally.They was fond of Flash too, yer see.
Anway, that’s all years ago. But I am glad to see Flash again. It’s good of you to find him, Mike
Mike
Well, I’ve been teasing the readers, Ollie. I’m not letting them see Flash and Barnie clearly, not letting them look over your shoulder.
So, here they are .
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….and here’s old Flash, as close as we can get without being nipped.
…………………………..What about Barnie there? He looks like he’s taking Flash for a walk, and he’s pretty flash himself as well.
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Olive
Barnie was full of revenge. Know what he did? He loosed the boards of the woman’s fence.. she had beautiful fowls, all sorts of things, and all her bloody fowls got out.
Serve her right, we said for dobbing in Flash. And it did too!
Mike
Well for that, we can put in this photo of you feeding chickens, place unknown, which I really like
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It’s terrible how people complain for the smallest thing. Like the neighbours who complained at MacMasters about Johnny the lettuce farmer.
Olive
Oh yes, how’s he going, by the way?
Mike
He seems optimistic but there’s still no news. Don’t worry, you and the blog will be the first to know, Ollie.
On thursday, I’ll be going with others to Parliament House in Sydney to speak to the Minister about the Avoca Theatre. That will be a big thing. It’s finally going to be decided, it seems. Wish us luck on that one.
Olive
I do Indeed! I love the old theatre. I don’t want to see it developed, that’s for sure.
Mike
I’ll tell the Minister what you think, don’t worry.
Olive
Bye till next time!
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Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 8:08 am
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21 Responses to “WHAT HAPPENED TO FLASH”
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May 8th, 2007 at 8:58 am
Hi Olive,
It’s wonderful to visit and read your ‘blob’ - what an interesting life!
You and my Great-Grandmother were born in the same year, I think of how life must’ve been for her when I read back through your posts - thank you
Have a wonderful day,
Cheers,
Mandie
Mandie, you are an early bird, the first to comment on the post about Flash.
You are also I guess in Australia which is nice. We’ve had lots of foreign readers, very big in Italy for some reason, but few in Olive’s home country as yet.
I think many people are reading the blog and sort of looking back over their shoulder at their own dear old rellies, now gone, thinking, yes, how “she” would have seen things too.
And of course we’ve all had special dogs in our lives, and we we think of them when Olive so vividly remembers Flash.
She had a later dog called Mitzie who was close in size and look to our Tosca who now pops up on Olive’s lap from time to time. Mike the helper
May 8th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Flash sounds just gorgeous and the neighbour sounds really awful for dobbing on him. She must have been sad and lonely to pick on Flash like that. I’m one of the Australian readers!
Thanks Jen, Mike the helper.
May 8th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
I’m pleased that Flash got to do an important job instead of being put down. It must have been his destiny to be a police dog and save that little girl.
Yes Robyn, Flash, celebrated at last. Mike and Ollie
May 8th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Olive, I am glad to know you’re feeling better. You certainly look well in the photos. It was terrible of that woman to have your dog taken away. He couldn’t have been bad if the police kept him. How nice that you have a photo of him now.
May 8th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Hi Mike. In your answer to Mandie you mention that there are many readers of this blog from Italy for some reason. You mentioned something like it in the past and I have always forgot to answer.
If you noticed an increase of readers from Italy since, say, one month ago, the reason is that this blog has been mentioned in the daily mail magazine named Cacao, that is very popular and reach thousands of people in Italy.
This is how I discovered the blog and same should be for many others. And you may receive even more messages from Italy if people is not too shy to show their English. As you can see I’m not shy at all and not ashame of my poor English too.
By the way, Cacao is the email magazine of Alcatraz, a kind of farm in the middle of Italy that is at the same time a resort and a cultural centre. It belongs to Jacopo Fo who is the son of Dario Fo, the Italian nobel prize for literature and the best theatre comedian we have here.
Stefano
Dear Stefano. That’s all so interesting. I knew that there had been some coverage in the Italian media but did not know what.
I know nothing of Cacao or the Fo father and son. I will look them up. On another matter, I told you that we hope Ollie will join the Five Lands Walk. This walk along our beautful Central coast is inspired by the Cinque Terre walk in Italy from the village of Riomajore to Monterosso on the Ligurian coast.
We hope to have Ollie up on a whale lookout half way along our walk. This is in late June. Thanks for all the info. Mike the helper.
May 8th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
HELLO AGAIN TO OLIVE AND MIKE, MUST SAY YOUR DOG FLASH WAS A BEAUTIFUL DOG AND I APPRECIATED HEARING ABOUT HIM. YOUR LIFE WAS FULL OF ACTIVITYAND IF YOU KEEP TELLING STORIES ,WE WILL FILL A GREAT BIG BOOK SOMEDAY! i HOPE YOU GET TOPUBLISH A BOOK SOMEDAY,MIKE. BYE FOR NOW, FROM DARLENE SHUSTER IN OHIO,USA 5-8-07
Nice to see you back, Darlene. Flash is long gone but we raise a glass in his memory, brave boy that he was. Mike the helper
May 8th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Ollie,
That Mike, you got there, is a card that needs to be dealt with!…:) He had me already to send a comment and say “Hey we can’t see a thing on those pictures”, and all along he was just messing with us. lol….You two are quite the pair. I love every post and I’am so happy you are feeling better.
We had you worried, did we? I knew those two blurred photos would be annoying, but then it’s all the nicer when you finally see the good one, no? Mike the helper
May 9th, 2007 at 12:16 am
Oh, I’m a sucker for a good pooch story, and Flash’s certainly didn’t disappoint. What a great dog he must’ve been to even play “card table” for a few minutes! I’m just catching up with all the past posts (was without Internet for a while).
I have to say that I just loved the DVD, All about Olive. How wonderful to see you in action, Olive.
Sognatrice is one of the lucky few who was sent Olive’s DVD. I would like to lend it to eveyone but that’s of course impossible financially, postage as well as DVD cost.
So, others will have to look up Ronin films and talk to them, though there is a DVD circulating in Italy and another in the US, both of which could be shared a bit further, I guess. Mike the helper.
May 9th, 2007 at 9:01 am
Hi Olive,
Thank you for sharing your ripe old life with the world. You are an inspiration! I hope I can get my mom to blog too. I have featured you on my blog today. I actually read about you in my local newspaper in Malaysia, http://thestar.com.my
Anyway, feel free to read my blog. I am currently working in Chinchilla, Queensland for 3 months, before I go back to Malaysia for my wedding in July this year.
May God bless you and Jesus loves you!
Thanks Sara, we will take a look at your blog. By the way, I had a look and the way you intergrate you tube into your blog is an inspiration. We have not go that far yet. Mike and Ollie
May 9th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Hello to both of you. Mike, it’s good that you can blow the photos up for Olive to see. Before that I guess for Olive they look a bit like the blurry ones you put on the blog. Where and when was the last photo taken? Lynne from Bulli.
Lynne, that photo was taken at Broken Hill, up on the lookout two years ago. Does it show? By the way, any news about Daryl. Have you thought of writing to that address? Mike the helper.
May 9th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Hi, just want to say that I like very much of all of Olive life story´s, amazing!
Kind Regards,
Bernardo Moura
From Portugal.
Thanks Berardo, we’ll try to keep them coming. Mike the helper.
May 10th, 2007 at 4:12 am
Hello!
Well… at least Flash died while helping a little girl and saving her form a terrible fate. Ollie and her family must have been proud of him. I’m glad to know that Ollie is fine and recovered.
Hi Monica, Yes Flash was a hero and Ollie mentioned yesterday how much she enjoyed bringing him back to life through the blog story. Memory has such reviving qualities. Mike the helper
May 11th, 2007 at 3:51 am
I came here from http://spluch.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html. At the place where I work there’s an old lady who avoids the internet like a plague! Saying there’re lots of bad people out there. Seeing you have a blog and have so many pictures here I think you must be a very lovely and open-minded lady~ Must be a very cool grandma too! haha, have a nice day~!
May 12th, 2007 at 7:20 am
Dogs are so great. We should all strive to be the person our dog thinks we are.
Stories are such good reading Mike and Ollie.
I’ve got an Aussie Shephard which is about 13 and in his final days. I certainly do not like to think about the upcoming inevitable. I know how Ollie must have felt.
Eric, We are very attached to Tosca and we take him to Olive as much as possible, knowing she misses not having a dog. Mike the helper.
May 13th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Dear Olive, I have been thinking about you. I wanted to to come and tell you, I hope you have a wonderful Mother’s Day! Please tell us what you did to celebrate.
Juniper, I have not seen Olive today so I dont know what’s been happening on Mother’s day . But we have a big and exciting week ahead. Mike the helper
May 13th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
I have a soft spot for German Shepherds. My brother had a beautiful dog called Ziggy. He (my brother) said he always knew when I was coming to visit. Ziggy would hear my car and start “yodelling”. I would open the car door and be trying to get out and Ziggy would be trying to get in, onto my lap…he wasn’t a small dog, either.
Glad to hear you are feeling better Olive. I love the colour photo of you at the end of your post…it’s such a happy picture of you.
Hugs to you.
Thanks for a great comment as usual, Robyn. More good stuff to come this week if all goes well, Mike the helper.
May 13th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
What a terrific story. Shame on thar neighbor for having Flash taken away! He must have been a very smart dog to be trained to work with police. And just think, that little girl may have died if your picky neighbor hadn’t of complained!
Yeah, I was frustrated with those blurry pics as well, until I realized Mike was pulling our leg.
Happy mother’s day to Olive, and a hug from me!
May 14th, 2007 at 1:49 am
I saw this story & thought of you Olive
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/6651181.stm
Still loving the blog. Its inspiring me to update mine more often.
May 14th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Hi! Olive & Mike …
Flash must have been a really great dog. I used to own a Rotweiler, named `Bear’ coz my wifey thought that he looks like a bear!!.. that was a long time ago!!
Olive, I am so glad that you’re ok!
Please take care & have a wonderful day!!
:)
Thanks Razzler. Olive had her potrait painted today and now there’s a load of work to get the story on the blog. Dogs out and pictures in! Mike the helper.
May 16th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Hello from southern California!
I am an appreciative reader of your blog and just want to wish you well and let you know you are a very special woman! What an inspiration! Thank you for sharing your life with all of us and for admitting us entrance into your personal treasure-trove of memories.
Prayers and warm wishes your way! And may the Lord bless you~
Gina Draker
Thousand Oaks, California, USA
Thanks, Gina, there’s a new story coming soon. Mike the helper
September 13th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
КлаÑ?Ñ?ный блог! Удачи!
СпаÑ?ибо Дмитрий!
Ðто первый ответ по-руÑ?Ñ?ки! Мы очень рады что блог вам понравилÑ?Ñ?! Mike the helper