Want to talk about your pet subject?*If you would like to feature (with your pet) in a forthcoming edition of this regular column, please contact Colleen Morgan at Colleen@MoodieDavittReport.com |
The Moodie Davitt Report is delighted to bring you the latest edition in our Pet-sonality Profile column, in association with Tito’s Handmade Vodka.
In this regular fun feature, we discover more about travel retail pet-sonalities, their back stories, traits and habits, as well as offering some insights into their owners. Each pet-sonality will also be painted digitally by pets and equine artist Sami Moodie.
In this edition, we meet Accolade Wines* Channel Sales Director EMEA Distributors and Global Travel Retail Jeff Bond who recently moved from a four-bedroom home in Brighton to a ten-acre farm in Lincolnshire, England.
Rather a drastic change but then Jeff is not your average travel retail executive and definitely not your average pet lover. He adores his two dogs, but also makes time for five sheep, five horses and two cats, one of which he inherited when he moved into the farm. Let’s meet them all.
Names + nicknames: OK, where to start? Let’s go with the dogs who are Olly, a black Labrador who is also known as Dodge, and Hippo, a Dobermann, known as Hippona who was the Greek goddess of horses.
My two daughters Amelie and Eliza named the sheep: Flossy, Doris, Ba-Lam, Porridge and Cucumber. And yes, of course, we can tell them apart.
The horses are Charlie (Boopy-bear), Mr.T (Gwen), Dream (Dream-bear), Skye (Ski-Ski bear) and Rocky, who strangely enough does not have a nickname. And the two cats are Puffin and Norman.
How old? Olly is ten and Hippo eight months. The sheep are also youngsters, only six months old. Charlie is 23; Mr.T eight; Dream-Bear ten; Skye nine and Rocky 12.
Puffin is four years old. Norman came as part of the house sale and I have no idea of his age.
How did you meet? I meet them whenever my wife Annika decides we need yet another pet and that invariably happens when I am away travelling with work. I often come home to a newcomer!
Love at first sight? I’d say I’ve grown to love them over many years of seeing how happy they make my daughters.
Quirky habits? The horses and the sheep groom each other. Hippo smiles all the time which is a Dobermann trait apparently and Olly plays dead when you shout ‘bang’.
Funniest and/or nicest moment? There have been many, but one has to be when Charlie came to breakfast for Amelie’s ninth birthday. She was desperate to invite him and after weeks of nagging I relented, so she came downstairs to open her presents and her horse was in the dining room waiting for her. Apart from the mess he left on the floor, it was great and a memory she’ll cherish forever.
Another is when the girls both took first place in riding competitions. Both riders and horses were so proud.
Favourite tricks? And treats? All the animals, with the exception of the cats, are trained to do assault courses and are often seen jumping jumps, flying through tunnels (not the horses) and playing football. You need to see it to believe it.
The sheep love porridge, dogs love peanut butter and the horses love apples from the garden (if they can get any as Hippo has a penchant for taking them off the tree and eating them).
Social media account? No, not so far.
If the animals could talk what would their first words be? That’s an easy one: Feed me or feed us.
Anything else we should know? We didn’t plan to have any animals but when the girls were little we got them pet rats called Moomin and Snufkin and it went from there.
We bought Hippo to be a guard dog at our new house but she’s so dopey that she spends most of the day sleeping and only gets up when she hears the post lady and goes berserk at the gate. The post lady has now resorted to leaving all our post with the neighbours as she’s terrified!
*Accolade Wines’s extensive portfolio includes Hardys, Grant Burge, St Hallett, House of Arras, Petaluma, Banrock Station, Mud House, Jam Shed, Tatachilla, Brookland Valley and many more.
**Click here for our introductory story on the Duty Free Unleashed partnership with Tito’s Handmade Vodka. The independent vodka brand from Austin, Texas has had a close connection with the welfare of dogs since its founding by Bert ‘Tito’ Beveridge in 1997. The company has always been committed to rescuing and protecting the animals that have come into the lives of its people, and has even created a programme, Vodka for Dog People, to help that come to life.
Note: Through this new column, Tito’s Handmade Vodka and The Moodie Davitt Report are partnering to promote the work of brokenbiscuits.org, a disabled animal charity. As the world’s first disabled animal centre, its work includes:
- Providing equipment to families
- Offering homes to paraplegic, deaf, blind and disabled animals
- An education programme of visiting schools and universities
- Working alongside rescue centre, rehabbers and veterinary professionals
- Caring for stray and surrendered disabled animals
To support the work of Broken Biscuits, you can donate via this link or find out more via the youtube channel.
Previously on Pet-sonality Profile
Meet Duke and Lindsay Hitzeroth
Meet Barry Geoghegan, Milly and Jess
Meet Julio Cesar Magaña Ortiz and Hope
Meet Pauline Prescott’s Daisy and Digger
