July 10, 2025 • 26 mins
Swimming and walking the canals of east London, carrying a ball and scavenging for fish n chips. "He's cured cancer, he's found a shotgun, he's on many instagram accounts... and I think he spreads a lot of love". #otherlivesareavailable #podcast #eastlondon #dogwalker
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Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
So we do this walk most well every evening.
We go from just opposite the gymthere.
And who leads you or your dog? He pretty much leads, although
we've done he's, he's done this for a very long time.
So we've done this walk on and off for around about 10 years.
(00:24):
I would say dogs like familiarity.
He definitely likes familiarity.So lots of people walk their
dogs along this canal, but he isthe only one who jumps in after
balls and swims. And that's why he's kind of like
well known on this. Canal he's he's he's very
famous, infamous, whatever, and I think probably much
(00:45):
instagramed, although neither henor me has got on Instagram, but
I would say at least at least every walk once, perhaps more
than once. Probably someone either filming
him or taking photos of him. So you just, you just picked up
his ball. Is he taking you for a walk or
(01:08):
are you taking him or, Or are you both gaining the same
pleasure from this walk that youdo every day or twice a day?
We are both gaining tremendous pleasure from it.
So when I first moved here, I think about 25 years ago, it
was, I didn't even consider the canal at all.
But since having him, so he's 12. 12 dog years or 12?
(01:32):
Human years, human years. So in fact, he's very old, so.
As a dog. For his breeds so he's a flat
coated retriever. His life expectancy is 6 to 9,
so he's. So he's a grandfather or a great
grandfather? Kind of, yeah.
I mean, if if you do the kind ofequating it to a human, he's a
third over the average. So if you see when an adult male
(01:55):
lives to be about 80, you know, he's basically over 100 in human
years. But I mean, I, I don't mean you
can actually do that, but if youwere to do that calculation, so
he would be very old. I personally think he's done
well. People come by saying, oh, it's
because he's swims so much. He's so fit.
I don't think it's the swimming.I think it's the cold water
(02:16):
plunging subtle difference. So what?
Right, So the the same as what they say about humans.
The same as what they say about.Us going back to the Roman
times, actually plunging into cold water is supposed to be
good for your general well-being.
And he, so he swims every day inthe morning and the evenings and
whatever the weather. So he'll swim in the so very
(02:38):
occasionally this is it never really gets completely iced
over, but it gets bits of ice ora real shimmer of very thin ice.
Makes no difference to him. He's happy and he'll swim in
that just the same as on a hot day.
What? What's his relationship with the
coots, the ducks, the Swans, thewild fowl on the canal?
(03:00):
OK, so because. He looks like, I'm not a dog
expert, but he looks like the kind of breed that back in the
day would have been some kind of.
So he's used for duck. He's duck hunting, which
obviously doesn't actually mean duck hunting.
It means you go out, shoot the duck, he goes and retrieves it.
Yeah. So he's not actually hunting the
duck, although some people seem to think, but he would jump in
(03:22):
the water and try and grab a duck, but he would never be fast
enough to do that. So that's his breed, but that
doesn't mean he's a hunter in quotation.
Mark no. He's from about 1860 to 1920.
They were the foremost retrieverused in in this country for
people who went shooting. So if you want a boring story
(03:44):
now the most common dogs are more Cocker spaniels, things
like that. And the reason is apparently
hedgerows. He's a bigger dog.
There were more hedgerow, more and bigger hedgerows in those
before kind of industrial farming really kicked in because
he was bigger and stronger. He could push through through
(04:05):
the hedgerows. Whereas now it's basically open
fields everywhere as you know. So his weight or his strength
was useful. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Bigger. And now they don't use such big.
I mean, I've never been on shoot, but I speak to people
that have because they are used sometimes ivory in estuaries
(04:27):
because they're really good swimmers.
They've got slightly webbed feetI think.
So. So the swimming thing is not
unique to him. It is actually.
His kind of breed, very much hisbreed.
Oh, he's doing a little spoiler.Oh.
Nice one, that's what we wanted.And that's, that's, that's not
(04:47):
the most solid. No.
So I don't know what's wrong with him today.
So it's a. Bit unfortunate.
You've got your doggy bags with you this.
I don't understand why. It's a bit like people leaving
litter. I don't understand why.
You wouldn't? Yeah.
(05:11):
So you're scattering a bit of dust and leaves over the well?
Not very. Solid.
Obviously you can pick it up no problem, but when it's a bit
squishy like that it's impossible to pick the last of
it up. So if you do that, it saves
anyone having to trade in it. That's my responsible human
being for the day act. So he's coming back to us now
(05:34):
having having deposited is yeah and I.
Haven't seen anything. Like it's bits and bobs, yeah.
But going back to the birds, so Swat, there's a family of Swans
here, by which I mean there's anadult pair who have signets
every year. They are incredibly aggressive
(05:55):
when they've got signets. Right.
And when they haven't got signets, they mutually ignore
each other and they're obviouslythe only ones that are powerful
enough to be of any threat to him.
So coots of which was plenty here.
In fact, this cafe, we're just about to walk past this called
Coot Cafe, I think. How is it?
(06:17):
Well, it's called Toe Path Cafe.There was a picture of a coot on
on the shutter. What's the name of your dog?
Gibson. Gibson.
And is there a history to why Gibson was chosen or is it just
a random name? So he was born on the
anniversary of the Dam Busters raid.
(06:38):
So Wing Commander Guy Gibson VCDso LED that raid.
So he was born on that on the anniversary.
Oh, I see. So it's named after the person
who led the Dam Busters raid? Yeah.
He always happened to go to my school by coincidence, obviously
before I was there just. So I've seen when you throw the
(07:00):
ball in for him, he'll put his, he'll bring it back, he'll put
his front paws on the side of the top off with the ball in his
mouth and he'll wait. That's his style now as an
older. Dog yes, he used to run with
with gay abandoned and leap in acrobatically.
And in fact, I said gay gay abandoned intentionally because
it was very theatrical how he used to kind of like run off and
(07:25):
just given a an enormous kind ofjump and huge belly flop type
thing into the water. The, the, the quality of the
water in the canal is mixed. Sometimes you see oil spills or
or petrol. It's not the cleanest, no.
Does that affect his coat? Does he does he have days when
he comes back a bit oily and a bit so I.
(07:48):
Forever. People tell me but he shouldn't
be in the canal because it's dangerous for him.
But I asked a vet once and the vet said it's perfectly fine but
he's actually very famous. Anyway, when he was a puppy, so
around about nine months old, wewere in the park.
He went into the bushes, came out with a bag.
(08:10):
Guess. Can you guess what was in it?
Drugs. No, but very related.
I'm sawn off shotgun and cartridges.
What? Yeah.
In in the local park back there.Yeah.
Goodness. As a result of that.
Did you get a police award? No, In fact, what the police
(08:32):
said at the time was, you know, we can publicize this, you know,
in a press release or something if you want, but it said we
would suggest not doing that because whoever's lost this gun
is not going to be very, very happy about it.
So. Not come after your dog, Gibson.
Well, probably not come after the dog, who who knows?
(08:53):
Anyway, they said, you know, whoever's lost it probably won't
be that happy about it. So we love to give press
releases about things like this,but if you don't want to do it,
so we we just kept. But.
But most of the people that havegot dogs from that period or or
newer at the time. So he was kind of famous,
(09:14):
notorious amongst people that knew.
It's kind of a one of those. Things the gun dog.
Literally, literally, yes. So we're we're just coming under
this bridge and this is one of his other spots where he goes in
there. Goes the ball, gives him
prepares, readies himself yeah, so he's.
(09:38):
Not stupid, he will normally go for short so he'll run along the
bank till it's the shortest route to the ball and then jump
in. And his head's above water.
His nose is, there's a V of water coming behind him because
he's got quite hairy legs. Does that help?
I'm I'm. Sure, I'm not sure.
As I said, he's got slightly webbed feet.
Not like a duck or anything, butvery slightly webbed feet.
(09:59):
He's coming back now. He's made the circle.
So he normally he loves edges. So when he walks, he normally
will walk against the wall. And so here where he swims,
he'll go and fetch the ball and then he comes to the side and
then he'll swim along the side. Oh, I see.
So he's, he doesn't get straightout.
He he likes a bit of extra swimming.
(10:19):
Yeah. So no, he loves staying in for
whatever reason. And there's there's places where
he has just developed a habit for getting out.
So in this case, what we're going to do is he's going to go
down to the horse ramp there. Right.
(10:41):
Oh, so you call that a horse? Ramp, OK.
So that is a horse ramp because?So this is so just describe it.
It's a small It's a small cut out bit of the canal path tow
path which usually has it's. A cut out bit, but it's
literally got a rat of concrete now.
It's a concrete ramp at a slope going up to path level down to
(11:02):
the bottom of the thing. The reason it's called a horse
ramp is it's from the olden dayswhen canal boats were pulled by
horses. If the horse ever fell in, they
couldn't get it out do. You know what I know?
I knew that horses did canals. I never even thought about
horses falling in, but they would occasionally.
Occasionally they would fall in.And they would have to have a
(11:25):
place to get out. So that's why I've always
wondered what those cutouts werefor.
And apparently this one is here because although this is, I
think maybe a second addition, this is, I think this is a
railway bridge here. Yeah, yeah.
So the trains would start all the horses.
So this was in a place where they would quite often fall in.
How interesting. How interesting.
(11:48):
So obviously no one can see this, but if you look down you
can see that's slightly at a ramp.
But of course now they've just disrepaired but don't bother
repairing them because they don't need to.
But they've left the cutting in that they're saying.
Yeah, they've left the cutting, the set back cutting because
what's the point in changing it?And they don't need to repair
the ramps because there's obviously no horses anymore.
(12:11):
And, and on some of the bridges,some of the low older bridges,
you've got the groove marks fromthe ropes, haven't you, where
they pulled past. That's right.
There's the shed, in fact, Gibson.
If we'd gone the other way, which we sometimes do, you get
to the Angel Tunnel, which goes down to King's Cross, and there
the horse had to go over and theand the men would apparently be
(12:34):
on the boat. You'd need two men, one on each
side, but you lie on your back and you use your feet on the
wall of the tunnel to walk the boat.
Does that make sense? Yes, yes.
How interesting. So that was so so people would
kind of low on the boat, use their feet and push it through
with human leg power and then pick up the horse the other
side. Yeah, it's a really long tunnel.
(12:56):
It's. Quite a feet, I think that's
about 1/4 of a mile that tunnel.So that is quite a lot of effort
because boats are pretty obviously the water takes to
wait, but they're pretty heavy. And if you imagine a boat
absolutely full of coal or whatever it was that they would
be carrying in those days. In he goes swimming out to the
(13:20):
ball in the middle. There we go.
First time turns around in a slow loop, comes back again.
Yeah, in the same same process where he actually swims to the
side and in fact we're going to go down to another horse ramp
down there. So it's quite a long stretch
this, this particular, this particular bit of swimming.
(13:43):
He's still in the water beside this swimming.
And he actually snorts a bit because I think the ball
compresses up against his nose abit when he's in the water.
So sometimes he's got a bit of asnort going on or he's swallowed
some water. So you've got that we've.
Got a We've got a a coot with a couple of baby coots there.
Yeah, exactly. Got them.
(14:03):
They are regressive, but he completely ignores them because.
He's they're always arguing witheach.
Other fight like crazy The Coots.
Seems to be their sole purpose in in living is to argue with
each other. My observation is what the
Coots, their babies survive, whereas ducks, So we have a lot
(14:23):
of ducks here as well. Who most of the regular duck,
well, they're all regular. I think they live here.
They all know Gibson and they'renot really scared or phased by
him whatsoever. He can jump in and they just
swim along, you know, he'll, he can even swim amongst them
sometimes if they're, you know, all in the right place.
(14:43):
Same with the geese. But the ducklings never seem to
grow old. So sometimes you'll see 10
ducklings. I mean, the next day there'll be
5 I know. And the next day there'll be
two. And then the next day you've got
a mum and dad looking around wondering what to do with
themselves. And the theory being a fox has
(15:05):
taken them. Which I think it's seagulls.
Seagulls. There are a few seagulls here
and I've seen on YouTube. Seagulls eating, taking
ducklings. God.
There must be big seagulls. Well, ducklings are tiny.
Yeah, true. So Gibson's done a really good
swim along here. That must be 100 meters.
(15:32):
So, yeah, he know. He knows what he's doing.
Sometimes as we go past this bridge, he then sneaks off down
to tries to sneak off down to Broadway market.
What for? Maybe he's caught a whiff of
some bitch. Yeah, because he's an intact
male and he's definitely excitedaround in season.
Even his age. Absolutely, and in fact,
(15:55):
especially at his age, because it was a year, as far as I know
he's only ever had sex once and that was about a year ago in the
park. Blimey, you waited a long time.
Boy he doesn't get much chance and generally owners of in
season bitches are not that happy for a random dog to do
them. So that was actually a dog
(16:16):
Walker. Whether the dog Walker told the
owners or I don't know because Iwould think that's pretty much a
suckable offence myself to let him be taking a dog out and.
Letting another dog? Yeah, let's.
Hire it exactly. Oh my goodness.
So anyway, he got. Lucky.
But you know, I wouldn't even have considered that.
(16:36):
So, so they might, so Gibson might have.
I think there might be a baby Gibson.
Somewhere. So this is the turning around
point. So he should dropped the ball
here. Which is what?
He's dropping the ball by a bench, a bit of litter around
it. He's having a snuffle around a
lunch box. Somebody's left.
(16:57):
Fish and chips, and so he's helping himself to cod and
chips, not a whole cod and chips.
But that was a fair chunk of card though.
That was pretty good. And that's, that's, that's fine
by you for him to have a little fish and chips.
Yeah, he's fine. Well, yeah, it is fine.
I want to look ring David also. The thing is, he's got
phenomenal, phenomenal memory. So what will happen if I pull
(17:19):
him away from that? So you can't have that.
We'll walk up there 100 yards and then he will sneakily
pretend to be sniffing somethingand then he will Sprint back.
I love that. And as you could see, we didn't
really hear it very well, but that was a closed polystyrene
box with the fish and chips in it and he was totally adapter
(17:40):
opening it. Yes, he's got last bit of fish
here. And as you can imagine along
here, sadly, there is an awful lot of food left.
Empty beer bottles, empty wine bottles and leftover takeaways.
(18:02):
Sounds like he could live the life of Riley.
Oh well, yeah, suits him very well, yes.
And you're quite, you're quite relaxed about it as an owner.
I would imagine that some dog owners would like pull their
dogs off. And go.
You need to eat the food that's healthy for you, but.
So he eats incredibly well his official diet, which is roast
(18:25):
chicken every day. That's basically, Oh my
goodness, you can laugh. It's not really roast chicken
what it is. It's George Foreman grilled
chicken. So I buy whole chickens, which
are cheaper than buying canned dog food.
So he has a quarter of a chickenper meal.
(18:48):
So he has half a chicken a day. But a can of dog food is is over
a pound for a for a reasonable brand and.
And how many cans would he eat? A.
Day so he would have I think recommend Pedigreed.
I think the recommended is 6 a day for him. 6 cans, so that's
£6 a day minimum if you're goingto do it on dog food, yeah.
(19:08):
So buying chickens is actually cheaper and I imagine a lot
healthier. He's going to get out here.
So you're pulling him by the back of his head, not by his
collar. And that's.
Yeah, I'm pulling him by the scruff of the neck.
Many people like to help out, especially if I've been
(19:28):
distracted and I'm talking to someone who's maybe 20-30, forty
meters ahead waiting to be pulled out.
There'll be some some Good Samaritan and usually they grab
him by the collar and I think, oh, but Lucky's got a very
powerful neck, so they don't strangle him.
So shouldn't. So you shouldn't pull him by the
collar. Oh, I see.
So actually it's better for him because I would have, I would
have automatically assumed that the collar would be the thing,
(19:50):
but that would. Strangle him.
Yeah. So dogs.
Dogs are like cats. They carry their puppies in
their mouth, but they pull them by the scruff of the neck.
They hold them. So obviously a puppy is much
smaller, but that's what it's, that's what they've evolved to
be. They've evolved for that.
So it's, it's perfectly reasonable to to pull a dog by
(20:12):
the scruff of the neck like that.
Also, he's oh, I'll tell you another good story about him.
So he's cured cancer. Oh, wow, I should have brought,
I should have brought my phone. Well, no, you can't see it
anyway, so I'm going to show youhere.
There's the shake. I've opened his mouth and you
(20:32):
can see he's got a growth on his.
Oh, just behind the growth. Behind us, it's a little growth,
about a centimeter cross on a centimeter and a half down
behind his canine. That's what it's gone down to.
What it was like was from where it starts there beneath his
canine all the way around to thefront.
(20:54):
So it was about four and a half centimetres, 5 centimetres by
sort of. Basically on his his gum kind of
expanded all. Right, Well, that's the growth
of the guys off the gum and the vet.
So last summer the vet said thathe just had a few weeks to live.
Oh my goodness, that must have been shocking news.
(21:15):
It was shocking news, although he was of an age where, you
know, it's not surprised, but hewould die at some point.
And a lot of dogs die of cancer these days, similarly to people,
because we're living, we're pushing on on a life.
So something's got to get you inthe end.
So cancer is quite often with dogs as well.
The vet said there's nothing we can do because the problem with
(21:39):
normally cut tumors like that off.
But when it's growing from the gum, there's no flesh to.
So we would have exposed the bone.
And basically says we can cut itoff, but he's going to basically
have half his jaw removed to do that and it's completely
pointless. And I don't, I've got weird
views on medicine for humans, let alone for dogs.
(22:00):
Don't really believe in doing operations, particularly in that
case. So I just let it just grew and
grew, and I thought, Oh well, I may as well try and do something
about this, even though the betssaid it was hopeless.
So I went online and looked at all kinds of quack remedies like
(22:24):
we do, and I just sort of mixed up a few different people's
ideas about what to do for things like this.
And then miraculously, that's happened.
So you did. So you use some of the quackery.
So what I did, well, I'll tell you what, it was no secret.
I'm not trying to patent it or anything.
It's basically, I use Castor oilto turmeric, but everyone says
(22:46):
it's magic these days. Castor oil, turmeric, garlic,
iodine, mix it all together and with a cotton bud, I rubbed it
over it twice a day. I did that twice a day and
within about two months it had gone down to half size and it's
been a roundabout. That's the size it is now for
(23:09):
since about Christmas time now. So I don't think it will
disappear completely, but it's it's now completely manageable
and for him and doesn't worry him.
So anyway, that's his other amazing story.
So he's cured cancer? He can find cancer.
He's found a shotgun. A shotgun.
And he's on Instagram on many people's accounts.
(23:29):
Yeah, I see to his swimming event.
He must be on many people's Instagram accounts.
We're going to go in here again,just about here.
Are we going to go here? In goes the ball, in goes
Gibson. And I think he spreads a lot of
(23:57):
love. That's without sounding too
hippie ish for a number of people that stop me and say, Oh
my God, this is so good. This is my favorite part of the
day is walking to work, seeing him jumping in.
That's great. I, I, I must have had over the
years thousands of people sayingsomething along those lines,
(24:21):
which is really heartwarming. Finally enough, we've talked all
about Gibson. But otherwise it's very strange
because I meet so many people and I try and be really friendly
to, I love going, I love smilingat people as we walk past.
I'm just saying hello. And sometimes over a year you
move from, you know, that male, male nodding your head at
(24:44):
someone to, to actually having asemi conversation.
Loads of people really confide in me.
I think it's that kind of safe, stranger thing.
That's interesting. They'll tell me about their
divorce coming up or they're unhappy with this or what's
going on with work and. It's that's really interesting,
(25:05):
and it's simply because you're aregular feature.
I think so. In their lives, you and Gibson.
Yeah, I had some young woman once who hardly knew her, but
she was, she obviously loved dogs and.
(25:25):
And he goes again. She loved dogs and I, and I
think that I'm, well, obviously her going home time, it's the
same time as we walked. So I saw her virtually every
day. She'd walk past and we'd have
little chat. She was an architect.
And then one day I met her and she just walked up to me, threw
her arms around me and burst into tears.
(25:47):
Oh my goodness, she'd been, she'd been sacked that day.
Oh. No it.
Was. But she, she, she.
Just obviously needed to just let go of that and she felt
comfortable enough to because I,because I get, you know, we'd
had little conversations, 2 minute conversations for six
months or something. She felt really connected.
(26:11):
But I think that's how it works.I think connections with people
are about the number of times, not necessarily the length of
them. So when you see someone wrinkle
a lot of times, even for a shortperiod, it feels like you really
know them. And maybe you do.
Maybe that's how it works.
So we do this walk most well every evening.
We go from just opposite the gymthere.
And who leads you or your dog? He pretty much leads, although
we've done he's, he's done this for a very long time.
So we've done this walk on and off for around about 10 years.
(00:24):
I would say dogs like familiarity.
He definitely likes familiarity.So lots of people walk their
dogs along this canal, but he isthe only one who jumps in after
balls and swims. And that's why he's kind of like
well known on this. Canal he's he's he's very
famous, infamous, whatever, and I think probably much
(00:45):
instagramed, although neither henor me has got on Instagram, but
I would say at least at least every walk once, perhaps more
than once. Probably someone either filming
him or taking photos of him. So you just, you just picked up
his ball. Is he taking you for a walk or
(01:08):
are you taking him or, Or are you both gaining the same
pleasure from this walk that youdo every day or twice a day?
We are both gaining tremendous pleasure from it.
So when I first moved here, I think about 25 years ago, it
was, I didn't even consider the canal at all.
But since having him, so he's 12. 12 dog years or 12?
(01:32):
Human years, human years. So in fact, he's very old, so.
As a dog. For his breeds so he's a flat
coated retriever. His life expectancy is 6 to 9,
so he's. So he's a grandfather or a great
grandfather? Kind of, yeah.
I mean, if if you do the kind ofequating it to a human, he's a
third over the average. So if you see when an adult male
(01:55):
lives to be about 80, you know, he's basically over 100 in human
years. But I mean, I, I don't mean you
can actually do that, but if youwere to do that calculation, so
he would be very old. I personally think he's done
well. People come by saying, oh, it's
because he's swims so much. He's so fit.
I don't think it's the swimming.I think it's the cold water
(02:16):
plunging subtle difference. So what?
Right, So the the same as what they say about humans.
The same as what they say about.Us going back to the Roman
times, actually plunging into cold water is supposed to be
good for your general well-being.
And he, so he swims every day inthe morning and the evenings and
whatever the weather. So he'll swim in the so very
(02:38):
occasionally this is it never really gets completely iced
over, but it gets bits of ice ora real shimmer of very thin ice.
Makes no difference to him. He's happy and he'll swim in
that just the same as on a hot day.
What? What's his relationship with the
coots, the ducks, the Swans, thewild fowl on the canal?
(03:00):
OK, so because. He looks like, I'm not a dog
expert, but he looks like the kind of breed that back in the
day would have been some kind of.
So he's used for duck. He's duck hunting, which
obviously doesn't actually mean duck hunting.
It means you go out, shoot the duck, he goes and retrieves it.
Yeah. So he's not actually hunting the
duck, although some people seem to think, but he would jump in
(03:22):
the water and try and grab a duck, but he would never be fast
enough to do that. So that's his breed, but that
doesn't mean he's a hunter in quotation.
Mark no. He's from about 1860 to 1920.
They were the foremost retrieverused in in this country for
people who went shooting. So if you want a boring story
(03:44):
now the most common dogs are more Cocker spaniels, things
like that. And the reason is apparently
hedgerows. He's a bigger dog.
There were more hedgerow, more and bigger hedgerows in those
before kind of industrial farming really kicked in because
he was bigger and stronger. He could push through through
(04:05):
the hedgerows. Whereas now it's basically open
fields everywhere as you know. So his weight or his strength
was useful. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Bigger. And now they don't use such big.
I mean, I've never been on shoot, but I speak to people
that have because they are used sometimes ivory in estuaries
(04:27):
because they're really good swimmers.
They've got slightly webbed feetI think.
So. So the swimming thing is not
unique to him. It is actually.
His kind of breed, very much hisbreed.
Oh, he's doing a little spoiler.Oh.
Nice one, that's what we wanted.And that's, that's, that's not
(04:47):
the most solid. No.
So I don't know what's wrong with him today.
So it's a. Bit unfortunate.
You've got your doggy bags with you this.
I don't understand why. It's a bit like people leaving
litter. I don't understand why.
You wouldn't? Yeah.
(05:11):
So you're scattering a bit of dust and leaves over the well?
Not very. Solid.
Obviously you can pick it up no problem, but when it's a bit
squishy like that it's impossible to pick the last of
it up. So if you do that, it saves
anyone having to trade in it. That's my responsible human
being for the day act. So he's coming back to us now
(05:34):
having having deposited is yeah and I.
Haven't seen anything. Like it's bits and bobs, yeah.
But going back to the birds, so Swat, there's a family of Swans
here, by which I mean there's anadult pair who have signets
every year. They are incredibly aggressive
(05:55):
when they've got signets. Right.
And when they haven't got signets, they mutually ignore
each other and they're obviouslythe only ones that are powerful
enough to be of any threat to him.
So coots of which was plenty here.
In fact, this cafe, we're just about to walk past this called
Coot Cafe, I think. How is it?
(06:17):
Well, it's called Toe Path Cafe.There was a picture of a coot on
on the shutter. What's the name of your dog?
Gibson. Gibson.
And is there a history to why Gibson was chosen or is it just
a random name? So he was born on the
anniversary of the Dam Busters raid.
(06:38):
So Wing Commander Guy Gibson VCDso LED that raid.
So he was born on that on the anniversary.
Oh, I see. So it's named after the person
who led the Dam Busters raid? Yeah.
He always happened to go to my school by coincidence, obviously
before I was there just. So I've seen when you throw the
(07:00):
ball in for him, he'll put his, he'll bring it back, he'll put
his front paws on the side of the top off with the ball in his
mouth and he'll wait. That's his style now as an
older. Dog yes, he used to run with
with gay abandoned and leap in acrobatically.
And in fact, I said gay gay abandoned intentionally because
it was very theatrical how he used to kind of like run off and
(07:25):
just given a an enormous kind ofjump and huge belly flop type
thing into the water. The, the, the quality of the
water in the canal is mixed. Sometimes you see oil spills or
or petrol. It's not the cleanest, no.
Does that affect his coat? Does he does he have days when
he comes back a bit oily and a bit so I.
(07:48):
Forever. People tell me but he shouldn't
be in the canal because it's dangerous for him.
But I asked a vet once and the vet said it's perfectly fine but
he's actually very famous. Anyway, when he was a puppy, so
around about nine months old, wewere in the park.
He went into the bushes, came out with a bag.
(08:10):
Guess. Can you guess what was in it?
Drugs. No, but very related.
I'm sawn off shotgun and cartridges.
What? Yeah.
In in the local park back there.Yeah.
Goodness. As a result of that.
Did you get a police award? No, In fact, what the police
(08:32):
said at the time was, you know, we can publicize this, you know,
in a press release or something if you want, but it said we
would suggest not doing that because whoever's lost this gun
is not going to be very, very happy about it.
So. Not come after your dog, Gibson.
Well, probably not come after the dog, who who knows?
(08:53):
Anyway, they said, you know, whoever's lost it probably won't
be that happy about it. So we love to give press
releases about things like this,but if you don't want to do it,
so we we just kept. But.
But most of the people that havegot dogs from that period or or
newer at the time. So he was kind of famous,
(09:14):
notorious amongst people that knew.
It's kind of a one of those. Things the gun dog.
Literally, literally, yes. So we're we're just coming under
this bridge and this is one of his other spots where he goes in
there. Goes the ball, gives him
prepares, readies himself yeah, so he's.
(09:38):
Not stupid, he will normally go for short so he'll run along the
bank till it's the shortest route to the ball and then jump
in. And his head's above water.
His nose is, there's a V of water coming behind him because
he's got quite hairy legs. Does that help?
I'm I'm. Sure, I'm not sure.
As I said, he's got slightly webbed feet.
Not like a duck or anything, butvery slightly webbed feet.
(09:59):
He's coming back now. He's made the circle.
So he normally he loves edges. So when he walks, he normally
will walk against the wall. And so here where he swims,
he'll go and fetch the ball and then he comes to the side and
then he'll swim along the side. Oh, I see.
So he's, he doesn't get straightout.
He he likes a bit of extra swimming.
(10:19):
Yeah. So no, he loves staying in for
whatever reason. And there's there's places where
he has just developed a habit for getting out.
So in this case, what we're going to do is he's going to go
down to the horse ramp there. Right.
(10:41):
Oh, so you call that a horse? Ramp, OK.
So that is a horse ramp because?So this is so just describe it.
It's a small It's a small cut out bit of the canal path tow
path which usually has it's. A cut out bit, but it's
literally got a rat of concrete now.
It's a concrete ramp at a slope going up to path level down to
(11:02):
the bottom of the thing. The reason it's called a horse
ramp is it's from the olden dayswhen canal boats were pulled by
horses. If the horse ever fell in, they
couldn't get it out do. You know what I know?
I knew that horses did canals. I never even thought about
horses falling in, but they would occasionally.
Occasionally they would fall in.And they would have to have a
(11:25):
place to get out. So that's why I've always
wondered what those cutouts werefor.
And apparently this one is here because although this is, I
think maybe a second addition, this is, I think this is a
railway bridge here. Yeah, yeah.
So the trains would start all the horses.
So this was in a place where they would quite often fall in.
How interesting. How interesting.
(11:48):
So obviously no one can see this, but if you look down you
can see that's slightly at a ramp.
But of course now they've just disrepaired but don't bother
repairing them because they don't need to.
But they've left the cutting in that they're saying.
Yeah, they've left the cutting, the set back cutting because
what's the point in changing it?And they don't need to repair
the ramps because there's obviously no horses anymore.
(12:11):
And, and on some of the bridges,some of the low older bridges,
you've got the groove marks fromthe ropes, haven't you, where
they pulled past. That's right.
There's the shed, in fact, Gibson.
If we'd gone the other way, which we sometimes do, you get
to the Angel Tunnel, which goes down to King's Cross, and there
the horse had to go over and theand the men would apparently be
(12:34):
on the boat. You'd need two men, one on each
side, but you lie on your back and you use your feet on the
wall of the tunnel to walk the boat.
Does that make sense? Yes, yes.
How interesting. So that was so so people would
kind of low on the boat, use their feet and push it through
with human leg power and then pick up the horse the other
side. Yeah, it's a really long tunnel.
(12:56):
It's. Quite a feet, I think that's
about 1/4 of a mile that tunnel.So that is quite a lot of effort
because boats are pretty obviously the water takes to
wait, but they're pretty heavy. And if you imagine a boat
absolutely full of coal or whatever it was that they would
be carrying in those days. In he goes swimming out to the
(13:20):
ball in the middle. There we go.
First time turns around in a slow loop, comes back again.
Yeah, in the same same process where he actually swims to the
side and in fact we're going to go down to another horse ramp
down there. So it's quite a long stretch
this, this particular, this particular bit of swimming.
(13:43):
He's still in the water beside this swimming.
And he actually snorts a bit because I think the ball
compresses up against his nose abit when he's in the water.
So sometimes he's got a bit of asnort going on or he's swallowed
some water. So you've got that we've.
Got a We've got a a coot with a couple of baby coots there.
Yeah, exactly. Got them.
(14:03):
They are regressive, but he completely ignores them because.
He's they're always arguing witheach.
Other fight like crazy The Coots.
Seems to be their sole purpose in in living is to argue with
each other. My observation is what the
Coots, their babies survive, whereas ducks, So we have a lot
(14:23):
of ducks here as well. Who most of the regular duck,
well, they're all regular. I think they live here.
They all know Gibson and they'renot really scared or phased by
him whatsoever. He can jump in and they just
swim along, you know, he'll, he can even swim amongst them
sometimes if they're, you know, all in the right place.
(14:43):
Same with the geese. But the ducklings never seem to
grow old. So sometimes you'll see 10
ducklings. I mean, the next day there'll be
5 I know. And the next day there'll be
two. And then the next day you've got
a mum and dad looking around wondering what to do with
themselves. And the theory being a fox has
(15:05):
taken them. Which I think it's seagulls.
Seagulls. There are a few seagulls here
and I've seen on YouTube. Seagulls eating, taking
ducklings. God.
There must be big seagulls. Well, ducklings are tiny.
Yeah, true. So Gibson's done a really good
swim along here. That must be 100 meters.
(15:32):
So, yeah, he know. He knows what he's doing.
Sometimes as we go past this bridge, he then sneaks off down
to tries to sneak off down to Broadway market.
What for? Maybe he's caught a whiff of
some bitch. Yeah, because he's an intact
male and he's definitely excitedaround in season.
Even his age. Absolutely, and in fact,
(15:55):
especially at his age, because it was a year, as far as I know
he's only ever had sex once and that was about a year ago in the
park. Blimey, you waited a long time.
Boy he doesn't get much chance and generally owners of in
season bitches are not that happy for a random dog to do
them. So that was actually a dog
(16:16):
Walker. Whether the dog Walker told the
owners or I don't know because Iwould think that's pretty much a
suckable offence myself to let him be taking a dog out and.
Letting another dog? Yeah, let's.
Hire it exactly. Oh my goodness.
So anyway, he got. Lucky.
But you know, I wouldn't even have considered that.
(16:36):
So, so they might, so Gibson might have.
I think there might be a baby Gibson.
Somewhere. So this is the turning around
point. So he should dropped the ball
here. Which is what?
He's dropping the ball by a bench, a bit of litter around
it. He's having a snuffle around a
lunch box. Somebody's left.
(16:57):
Fish and chips, and so he's helping himself to cod and
chips, not a whole cod and chips.
But that was a fair chunk of card though.
That was pretty good. And that's, that's, that's fine
by you for him to have a little fish and chips.
Yeah, he's fine. Well, yeah, it is fine.
I want to look ring David also. The thing is, he's got
phenomenal, phenomenal memory. So what will happen if I pull
(17:19):
him away from that? So you can't have that.
We'll walk up there 100 yards and then he will sneakily
pretend to be sniffing somethingand then he will Sprint back.
I love that. And as you could see, we didn't
really hear it very well, but that was a closed polystyrene
box with the fish and chips in it and he was totally adapter
(17:40):
opening it. Yes, he's got last bit of fish
here. And as you can imagine along
here, sadly, there is an awful lot of food left.
Empty beer bottles, empty wine bottles and leftover takeaways.
(18:02):
Sounds like he could live the life of Riley.
Oh well, yeah, suits him very well, yes.
And you're quite, you're quite relaxed about it as an owner.
I would imagine that some dog owners would like pull their
dogs off. And go.
You need to eat the food that's healthy for you, but.
So he eats incredibly well his official diet, which is roast
(18:25):
chicken every day. That's basically, Oh my
goodness, you can laugh. It's not really roast chicken
what it is. It's George Foreman grilled
chicken. So I buy whole chickens, which
are cheaper than buying canned dog food.
So he has a quarter of a chickenper meal.
(18:48):
So he has half a chicken a day. But a can of dog food is is over
a pound for a for a reasonable brand and.
And how many cans would he eat? A.
Day so he would have I think recommend Pedigreed.
I think the recommended is 6 a day for him. 6 cans, so that's
£6 a day minimum if you're goingto do it on dog food, yeah.
(19:08):
So buying chickens is actually cheaper and I imagine a lot
healthier. He's going to get out here.
So you're pulling him by the back of his head, not by his
collar. And that's.
Yeah, I'm pulling him by the scruff of the neck.
Many people like to help out, especially if I've been
(19:28):
distracted and I'm talking to someone who's maybe 20-30, forty
meters ahead waiting to be pulled out.
There'll be some some Good Samaritan and usually they grab
him by the collar and I think, oh, but Lucky's got a very
powerful neck, so they don't strangle him.
So shouldn't. So you shouldn't pull him by the
collar. Oh, I see.
So actually it's better for him because I would have, I would
have automatically assumed that the collar would be the thing,
(19:50):
but that would. Strangle him.
Yeah. So dogs.
Dogs are like cats. They carry their puppies in
their mouth, but they pull them by the scruff of the neck.
They hold them. So obviously a puppy is much
smaller, but that's what it's, that's what they've evolved to
be. They've evolved for that.
So it's, it's perfectly reasonable to to pull a dog by
(20:12):
the scruff of the neck like that.
Also, he's oh, I'll tell you another good story about him.
So he's cured cancer. Oh, wow, I should have brought,
I should have brought my phone. Well, no, you can't see it
anyway, so I'm going to show youhere.
There's the shake. I've opened his mouth and you
(20:32):
can see he's got a growth on his.
Oh, just behind the growth. Behind us, it's a little growth,
about a centimeter cross on a centimeter and a half down
behind his canine. That's what it's gone down to.
What it was like was from where it starts there beneath his
canine all the way around to thefront.
(20:54):
So it was about four and a half centimetres, 5 centimetres by
sort of. Basically on his his gum kind of
expanded all. Right, Well, that's the growth
of the guys off the gum and the vet.
So last summer the vet said thathe just had a few weeks to live.
Oh my goodness, that must have been shocking news.
(21:15):
It was shocking news, although he was of an age where, you
know, it's not surprised, but hewould die at some point.
And a lot of dogs die of cancer these days, similarly to people,
because we're living, we're pushing on on a life.
So something's got to get you inthe end.
So cancer is quite often with dogs as well.
The vet said there's nothing we can do because the problem with
(21:39):
normally cut tumors like that off.
But when it's growing from the gum, there's no flesh to.
So we would have exposed the bone.
And basically says we can cut itoff, but he's going to basically
have half his jaw removed to do that and it's completely
pointless. And I don't, I've got weird
views on medicine for humans, let alone for dogs.
(22:00):
Don't really believe in doing operations, particularly in that
case. So I just let it just grew and
grew, and I thought, Oh well, I may as well try and do something
about this, even though the betssaid it was hopeless.
So I went online and looked at all kinds of quack remedies like
(22:24):
we do, and I just sort of mixed up a few different people's
ideas about what to do for things like this.
And then miraculously, that's happened.
So you did. So you use some of the quackery.
So what I did, well, I'll tell you what, it was no secret.
I'm not trying to patent it or anything.
It's basically, I use Castor oilto turmeric, but everyone says
(22:46):
it's magic these days. Castor oil, turmeric, garlic,
iodine, mix it all together and with a cotton bud, I rubbed it
over it twice a day. I did that twice a day and
within about two months it had gone down to half size and it's
been a roundabout. That's the size it is now for
(23:09):
since about Christmas time now. So I don't think it will
disappear completely, but it's it's now completely manageable
and for him and doesn't worry him.
So anyway, that's his other amazing story.
So he's cured cancer? He can find cancer.
He's found a shotgun. A shotgun.
And he's on Instagram on many people's accounts.
(23:29):
Yeah, I see to his swimming event.
He must be on many people's Instagram accounts.
We're going to go in here again,just about here.
Are we going to go here? In goes the ball, in goes
Gibson. And I think he spreads a lot of
(23:57):
love. That's without sounding too
hippie ish for a number of people that stop me and say, Oh
my God, this is so good. This is my favorite part of the
day is walking to work, seeing him jumping in.
That's great. I, I, I must have had over the
years thousands of people sayingsomething along those lines,
(24:21):
which is really heartwarming. Finally enough, we've talked all
about Gibson. But otherwise it's very strange
because I meet so many people and I try and be really friendly
to, I love going, I love smilingat people as we walk past.
I'm just saying hello. And sometimes over a year you
move from, you know, that male, male nodding your head at
(24:44):
someone to, to actually having asemi conversation.
Loads of people really confide in me.
I think it's that kind of safe, stranger thing.
That's interesting. They'll tell me about their
divorce coming up or they're unhappy with this or what's
going on with work and. It's that's really interesting,
(25:05):
and it's simply because you're aregular feature.
I think so. In their lives, you and Gibson.
Yeah, I had some young woman once who hardly knew her, but
she was, she obviously loved dogs and.
(25:25):
And he goes again. She loved dogs and I, and I
think that I'm, well, obviously her going home time, it's the
same time as we walked. So I saw her virtually every
day. She'd walk past and we'd have
little chat. She was an architect.
And then one day I met her and she just walked up to me, threw
her arms around me and burst into tears.
(25:47):
Oh my goodness, she'd been, she'd been sacked that day.
Oh. No it.
Was. But she, she, she.
Just obviously needed to just let go of that and she felt
comfortable enough to because I,because I get, you know, we'd
had little conversations, 2 minute conversations for six
months or something. She felt really connected.
(26:11):
But I think that's how it works.I think connections with people
are about the number of times, not necessarily the length of
them. So when you see someone wrinkle
a lot of times, even for a shortperiod, it feels like you really
know them. And maybe you do.
Maybe that's how it works.
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