©GeraldineBanksFebruary2025
Tedi woke up just as Cross walked across the room to take him for his walk. He hopped down from the window sill. Tedi had been enjoying his dream but he was ready to go out for a walk.
” You ready for your walk, Teds”
That’s what Cross called him now after many years, and Tedi liked it. Only Cross was allowed to call him that and only in private.
“Where do you fancy going today, hopefully that joint care is doing some good, and we might get down to the lake today. What do you say?” Cross bent down and rubbed Tedi’s head.
The joint care was working and Tedi thought that he would like to go down to the lake , but slowly.
It was early Spring and the House and Gardens were starting to look their best, the place was just coming alive with blossom and the birds singing their mating calls. Cross and Tedi walked across the lawn towards the drive and where they would go over the bridge and down to the side of the lake. They both took it slowly. Tedi sniffing the grass and the flowers, Cross waiting patiently and enjoying the surroundings. The weather certainly was improving.
” Better for my old bones ” Tedi thought to himself as he sniffed his surroundings.
They arrived at their favourite place , the bench where a long time ago they had done the photo shoot and the photographer, Arthur had fallen in the water after Tedi had persuaded him to get in the boat. That incident was funny at the time, and everyone thought Arthur had got what he deserved, but there had been consequences, which thankfully Tedi was still here to think back on.
“Revenge is not sweet” Tedi thought, and then quickly moved on as it was a nice morning and he wanted to think of happy things.
Cross had some cushions and blankets and they made themselves comfortable and sat looking at the view of the house on the other side of the lake.
Tedi settled down on the bench beside Cross , who opened his bag and took out a flask of coffee. Tedi laid his head on Cross’s knee and fell asleep.
A few minutes and he was dreaming again.
He was back at the Grand Show on day two , visiting the reptile in the main house.
The reptiles fascinated him and scared him at the same time. Tedi decided to follow Ben Needham while he was doing his rounds after all the visitors had gone. Trinnie was not impressed.
After a busy second day , Tedi accompanied Ben on his rounds to make sure all the reptile exhibits were fed and watered and their enclosures cleaned and made secure. Trinnie went off in a huff with the other dogs to stay in the accommodation that had been set up in the Orangery for them. Trinnie had seen the three green tree pythons wrapped around the branches of a tree in their vivarium and that was enough for her. She was not going with Tedi, she was going to be safe in the Orangery.
Ben told Tedi to stay close and do what he said. Tedi and Ben started at the ground floor and worked their way up. The first enclosure they came to was the “Aldabra Giant Tortoise” which needed to be fed special grasses and herbs which Ben replenished along with fresh water and some more hay which they could eat or use for bedding. He brushed the inside of the enclosure and checked the temperature and the humidity. All was well so they moved on.
The next exhibit was a big glass tank which contained a Green Anaconda, now this was scary, it was a big tank and all Ben had to do was to turn off the lights in the tank, thankfully, the care notes for the snake said that it had been fed a week ago with some dead rabbits , so Ben didn’t need to open the top , he just checked that the lid was secure and turned off the lights after checking the water filters and heating was working. Tedi looked at the anaconda while Ben completed his tasks, Tedi shivered, and just before the lights were turned off , it stared at him. It was very scary, but Ben had did his checks and the snake wasn’t going anywhere.
The next exhibit was the Diamondback Rattlesnake, Ben looked at the notes and the snake would need to be fed. So he took some dead frozen mice out of the bag he was carrying and got ready to drop them in the tank. He had to open it from the top and this did disturb the two snakes within, who made loud rattling noises to warn any predators off, this again frightened Tedi and he moved away from the glass and waited at a distance for Ben to finish. Once the Rattlesnakes had saw the mice they moved towards them and devoured them.
“They must have been hungry” Tedi thought and gulped. Perhaps Trinnie had been right , this was all very frightening, but he couldn’t go back , he had to stay with Ben.
There were lots of lizards, chameleons and iguanas to be checked on the ground floor, so Ben got on with what he needed to do and then signalled to Tedi it was time to go upstairs.
Tedi and Ben went up to the big aquarium upstairs, this housed the Yacare Caiman’s from South America. They were very like alligators , Tedi had seen them arrive , but had only had a glimpse. Now he could see them in all their glory, they were big. One had actually shed it’s skin and the skin was lying in the water. At first Tedi thought the Caiman was ill, but Ben looked at wonder at the skin and said that he’d get the keeper to remove it tomorrow.
” Wasn’t it amazing , it was a good sign that the Caiman was relaxed enough to shed it’s skin, wouldn’t do that if it was frightened.” Ben spoke out loud, as he saw Tedi staring.
Next were Ben’s favourites the Spiders and Ben was in his element. These were kept in various rooms on the second floor along a long corridor. Tedi dutifully followed Ben in and out of the rooms looking at all the exhibits. One of the bathrooms had been used for the exhibit ” House Spiders”, and the bath had one or two in them and there were a few webs in the corner.
” Just like normal Tedi thought, Ben dutifully counted the spiders in each room , just to make sure that all the species were accounted for .
Ben knew Tedi was curious about his eight legged friends. Tedi had behaved very well and Ben decided to let him get to know one of his spider friends a bit closer. One of the exhibits was Ben’s own collection and when Ben entered the room where his Mexican Red- Knee Tarantula was kept he had an idea.
He took Charlie out and held it gently in his open hand and then knelt down gently , so that Tedi could see it more closely. Tedi looked at Charlie and Charlie looked at Tedi.
“See Tedi, they aren’t really scary are they?”
Tedi gulped , he was hoping it wasn’t going to jump at him.
Ben said ” Would you like to give Charlie a piggie back Tedi?”. Tedi moved away .
” Well maybe it’s not a good idea, still just look isn’t he beautiful.” Ben smiled.
“Tedi looked again and then thought better of it and moved closer to Ben. The spider was relaxed and Tedi signalled to Ben , that it was OK , he’d let the spider sit on his back.
Ben gently placed the spider on Tedi’s back, it stayed put and didn’t move, Tedi’s fur was a bit strange for it’s sensitive feet, but Charlie liked the warmth coming from Tedi’s body.
Tedi stayed quite still and didn’t move, Charlie though gently walked up Tedi’s neck and towards his head. Ben gently reached down and took Charlie off him as he was on his head and one of his legs was covering Tedi’s eys Ben smiled.
“You did very well there Tedi, you can now consider yourself a spider carer. You’ve helped me on my rounds and you got close to Charlie. You are quite a dog!”
Tedi wagged his tail at him, he knew not many other dogs would be as brave as he was, but Tedi was Head of the House and he knew he had to be brave and understand things that other dogs wouldn’t. The spiders were part of the exhibit and he felt that he had done his bit, he would never be scared of anything again. Much as the spider had seemed scary , it was really gentle”.
It was then he heard Cross’s voice.
“Come on Ted, I’ve had my coffee, we need to get back to the House. Did you have a nice dream, you’ve got a smile on your face.”
Tedi rolled over on his blanket and had a good stretch, Cross rubbed his tummy and got the circulation going in his paws.
When Cross stood up, Tedi hopped down and Cross picked up the blanket and the flask and headed back to the House with Tedi.
thenotsomightyom 