Then Lelie (lilly) came back into my life. This is the little mite that Kristani picked up about a year ago, covered with raw sores over her whole body, and no hair.Irma ordered Kristani to get rid of it, as it looked like it had mange, but said that the little thing could stay until morning, but no longer, in case Hendrix caught it. In the morning however, when Irma went to make coffee, she looked into the box, sure that the little dog would be dead, but she burst into tears when she saw a raw and red little tail starting to wag furiously, and two black eyes staring at her from between two huge mange ridden ears! Of course that was it, and Lelie stayed!
When Kristani moved out some while later, Lelie went with, and as time went on, she grew into this fantastic little dog with a coat as white as snow, with no markings, but around both her eyes she had black rings, looking like it was drawn in with a kohl pencil. She was beautiful.
Kristani brought her to me when she went to Holland to work, and I soon grew to love her, and luckily Irma said that she could go to them when I go back to Scotland. But now followed a period of intense frustration, as just after she was brought to me, she went on heat before I could get an appointment to have her fixed,  Kristani never having done it, as their yard was quite secure.
If you have never lived in a village like Haarlem, I don't think anybody could form an idea about the hordes of stray dogs, cats and other beasts walking the roads, and I think that old Hendrix might have had some lusty encounters with quite a few ladies, as their was suddenly quite a few Labrador crosses roaming around.
Of course the males got wind of Lelie's condition, and within a short period of time this lot started hanging around the gate, trying their best to get in, while Lelie, the cheap little hussy, tried her best to get out for a bit of fun with all this would-be lovers. I would have none of that, as in the first instance I did not want a litter of puppies, and secondly, the loverboys of Haarlem was a woebegone lot with their ribs sticking out from under their scraggly coats caked with dirt, and their thin bodies showing signs of a desperate need for food. I usually threw all my scraps over the fence, and I think that kept quite a few of them alive.
Within a few days I was bally tired out from keeping watch and chucking out quite a few of the would be lovers who managed to scramble through a small hole in the fence, and when I again saw Lelie making cautiously for a small hole underneath where the fence spanned the watervoor running down in front of my house, I got a rope and a leash from Jan and tied her to the front door where I could keep a constant eye on her.