Many of our loyal Brisbane customers would have met our dog Chopper over the years. Sadly, Chopper passed away on the 7th of May 2006. It was very sudden and without much warning. We thought that he was invincible - he seemed so fit and healthy. By the time the vet tried to operate on him to remove the large tumour on his spleen, he died. He was not quite 12 years old. He was very much part of the Perfect Potion team. He came to work every day – not that he did any work.
He was the keeper of the bins, regularly checking them to ensure no one threw food scraps into them – because if they did, Chopper would find them and ensure they were disposed of properly.
At lunch he would look at you with those big doggy eyes waiting for you to give him some food scraps. He usually got his way, however if you didn’t give in to him he would give you an ear full of his barking!
He loved Christmas in the shops, he loved getting attention and pats from customers – when he got bored he would start eating raffia, unfortunately raffia does not digest that well, and it was always embarrassing the next day when I had to pull ˝ metre or so of raffia from you know where!
He attended all the workshops that I taught in Brisbane, if anyone in the class had food in their bag he would find it, if they placed their glass of water on the floor he would drink from it – water always tasted better from a glass for Chopper.
He attended all the staff meetings and almost all the job interviews that I did. The “in” joke at Perfect Potion was that if you liked Chopper you would definitely get the job. Ann, our book keeper told me that during her interview, Chopper decided to sit on her foot for the whole interview. She was not too sure what to do, so she put up with him.
He was a really good judge of character and yes I do think he did help me in the recruitment process. Kath our Retail Operations Manager was even luckier – she got what we ended up calling “some Chopper loving”. That was usually a little embarrassing – if he liked you very much he often latched onto your leg and gave it a hump!
Most important of all – he was a gentle soul with attitude who loved to be around people – he filled our lives with so much joy and fun. He was not the most obedient dog, but what he lacked in obedience he made up for in character and personality. He never really understood that he was a dog.
He exuded a puppy like innocence right up to the very last minute –on his last day a stranger who had just met Chopper came up to us and said “he is a seriously cute dog”.
We are all grateful that we had an opportunity to share our lives with such a special little dog.
Chopper we miss you so much.
Sal & Carolyn
