NO PARTING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 236, 5 October 1945, Page 7

NO PARTING

DOG AND MASTER

FLUFF TO STAY IN N.Z.

If he only knew it, Fluff, the dog if Bandsman George Plimer, exprisoner of war who landed in Auckland from Tokyo yesterday, has nothing to worry about. The difficulty is to tell him so.

Bandsman Plimer saved Fluff from a Japanese cooking pot when he was only one of a litter of pups. The two had not since been separated until yesterday, when the dog's master, who lost both his feet as the result of Jap neglect of a frostbitten toe, was brought ashore from the hospital ship Tjitjalengka and admitted to hospital.

At that stage tragedy seemed to be stalking the pair. Both were heartbroken at the parting. Bandsman Plimer was even willing to stay aboard the ship and forgo the hospital treatment if only they could remain together.

But Bandsman Plimer had to leave and the Auckland authorities had no choice in refusing to allow Fluff to accompany him. There were no quarantine facilities available and Fluff might be carrying germs of Japanese origin.

Local animal-lovers, however, knowing what a separation would mean to dog and master, were not content to leave it at that. They could find no means of overcoming the ruling of the Department of Agriculture, but Mr. K. C. Aekins, chairman of the Auckland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, went a step further and telephoned the Prime Minister's Department in Wellington. This morning the glad tidings arrived. Fluff could stay in New Zealand. He would have to be quarantined on Somes Island, Wellington, but that was easy, as the Tjitjalengka is now on her way to that port. The Auckland S.P.C.A. has agreed to meet any costs incurred during the quarantine period and has written to the Wellington society asking them to take over when Fluff sets foot on solid land again for the first time since he scampered aboard the hospital ship at Tokyo. The main issue, therefore, has been solved, but a problem still remains. Fluff remains completely in the dark. All he knows is that his master has left and he is fretting. Ever since Bandsman Plimer was taken ashore Fluff has stayed beneath his cot. He has'refused to eat or drink and will have no truck with anyone. Fluff this morning was not interested in the overtures of the Press. He was indifferent as to whether his picture was taken or not and only asked to be left alone beneath the empty hospital cot. And so the position remains. A broken-hearted Fluff, described as to breed by his friends as "a sort of collie," is bound for Wellington. His future is rosy, but all he knows is that at present his whole interest in life is missing.