On 21st October 2002, Thornberry Animal Sanctuary
received a call from their vets about a Greyhound which had been taken in to be pts. As usual, they contact them when they get healthy dogs to be pts, to see if the rescue will take them. Naturally they did.
This lovely boy was collected and after a little conflict over whether to call him Albert or Colin, a compromise was reached and he was christened Albert Collins.
It transpired that he had lived on an allotment, and his bed had been a compost heap He was around 7 years old.
Albert had never known love and had no idea what affection was. Initially he made no repsonse to being stroked. There was no sparkle in his eyes and his head hung low. He had a broken toe and some hideous growths on his belly from sleeping on the compost heap. He ate, he slept, and he plodded along disinterestedly when taken for a walk.
After a little while Albert began to respond to lots of tlc. Everyone fell in love with Albert and he soon became one of the rescue's 'special' dogs. After a few weeks TAS found a wonderful home for Albert, wherein he had much love lavished on him. A warm bed, good food and most of all the companionship, love and care which he had been previously so deprived of. He was very happy.
Yesterday they received the very sad news that Albert had passed away peacefully in his sleep. He was in bed with his 'mum'. Pauline (TAS) said 'I am not ashamed to say that I wept a lot of tears for this gentle boy, in fact I am crying again now as I type this. I have known many, many dogs, and I feel somewhat bemused by the profound effect these poor unfortunate creatures have on me, after only relatively briefly passing through my life.'
Run free, dear, sweet Albert Collins. There is another star in Heaven tonight
