'Old Brownie’ And A Young Girl Called Annette...
This is a wonderful story about a special relationship between a stray dog and a young girl Annette at the Subiaco State School in 1947.
The dog ‘Old Brownie’ had been a regular visitor to the school for over nine years and seems to have made his home there roaming freely among the classrooms and watching the children play.
But according to the Headmistress of the Subiaco Infants’ School Miss Elizabeth Glendinning, the dog had formed a special relationship with one of the children, seven year old Annette Bourke.
The article and photograph are from Trove, the database at the National Library of Australia. No copyright infringement intended.
Daily News, 19 July 1947.
Shy, seven-year-old Annette Bourke has a strange influence over a temperamental old dog which has visited her school for the past nine years. Teachers at the Subiaco Infants School and many parents are amazed at the power that little, Annette has over the old dog which has no other home but the school. She is envied by her school friends who have unsuccessfully tried to break down the reserve which the dog shows when with others. Each day Annette becomes the central figure as dozens crowd around to see her feed 'Old Brownie,' as she calls him. Other children have brought scraps to feed the dog but he treats them with a coldness in direct contrast with the devotion he shows to his young mistress. Unable to gain his confidence, others, even adults, are forced to give their tit-bits to Annette to give to the dog.
Gleefully he barks a welcome to her each morning and faithfully takes up a position near her classroom for the rest of the day. School headmistress Miss Glendinning has known the dog since it first came to the school as an outcast nine years ago. Said she: 'No one seemed to want the dog but the children grew to love him and he quietly followed them and watched them play.
But I cannot understand his attitude towards Annette. Never before has anyone been able to exercise such control over him. 'And she is so attached to the dog that I think she would go without her own lunch rather than see Brownie go hungry.
Nine years ago 'Old Brownie' was rather a nuisance; he chewed the desks and the teacher's charts and jumped on the children. Now he is quiet and demure. He sometimes wanders into my office and stretches himself out for a while.
But he refuses to have anything to do with men. Only the other day he snapped at the inspector. According to the caretaker, the dog has an instinct which tells him when it is holiday time. Until the children return he is not seen in that part of Subiaco but the day school opens he is back and the first he greets is curly-haired Annette.
