Who is the legally blind 18-year-old fox terrier-cross-daschund named PepiSmartDog I ran across on twitter? To be truthful, he almost ran me down in his wheeled chariot. Undaunted, I set out to discover his story……

Pepi is a Golden Oldie. He was adopted from the Animal Welfare League at the distinguished age of 12 years. This in itself is a story worthy of a Pulitzer – a programme which matches mature animals with the type of human who has the intelligence, foresight and downright good heart to appreciate a creature of maturity and life experience.

But there is a price to pay for maturity. Don’t I know it! The accumulation of wisdom also brings aches, pains and a certain lack of the once stupendous mobility we didn’t even notice in our youth.

Pepi, poor chap, is a little unsteady on the pins. No more leaps and gambols on the grass but is he fazed? Did he roll over and show his belly? No! He laughed in the Teeth of Time and trained his new owner to take him on his daily run in the comfort of a dog-pram. Six days a week he accompanies his pal on a 7 kilometre workout up and down the hills of Australia’s Gold Coast. Attaboy Pepi!

He’s been in the newspapers already but my blog (no room for false modesty here) is international and it’s my pleasure to introduce such a snappy dresser as Pepi to the rest of the world.

You can vote for Pepi on the Australian Tweeter Wall of Fame too. I usually vote for creatures of the feline variety, we felis catus characters have to stick together, but Pepi is an exception indeed.

Notice his swisho outfit – just one of many from his extensive wardrobe of seasonal styles to suit his lifestyle. (He has kick boxing boots in yellow!) Will we see Pepi take honours in the fashion stakes at this year’s Melbourne Cup?

And just look at that face. He could almost be a cat!

It’s sad, as he was a cat with a lot of life experience behind him. Come to think of it, he was in my age group and this sort of thing makes me feel my own mortality. It always happens like that doesn’t it? You find your own generation is slipping away.

You ask yourself how much longer you have. It could have been me! (One should always have one’s affairs in order in case of an unexpected demise).

The world of the internet and instant global communication has opened up grand new vistas, I would never have met Oscar in the normal course of events. We live not only in different countries but in different hemispheres.

You’ve heard of internet dating? I don’t indulge in things like this myself of course. My little nip’n'tuck of a few years back certainly doused any fires of romance in that department but I’m still a worldly cat. And a Geek Cat. So was Oscar.

Oscar and I became pals via Twitter. We may have lived thousands of miles from each other, but I felt we were brothers. I know – all cats are brothers and sisters – but Oscar and I shared a couple of jokes, chatted to each other and complained about the price of fish. It was thanks to Oscar that I met other cats, he had a way of attracting a crowd around himself, a way of making us all feel part of a big family.

There is an empty place among the twitter anipals today.

Vale, Oscar!

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