Tough-looking softies, with even softer owners

The story of how Nova came to live with Katandra West’s Scott Almond and Julie Venables is one of both sadness and humanity.

The placid pooch was deemed too big by her former owners to be around their kids, so they were sadly going to have her put to eternal sleep.

Mr Almond, who wasn’t looking to become a dog owner at the time, said there was no way he was going to let that happen to her, so he took her in.

“She’s never once shown aggression to any other dog or person,” he said, as the miniature pony-sized pooch somehow managed to squeeze herself into a small space behind him on his chair and drool on his shoulder.

Just over a year ago, Neo joined the family and has put Nova’s tolerance to the test, taking advantage of her good nature from their first moments together and bossing the bigger dog around.

Nova was still quite young at three, but her playful puppiness calmed when Neo came along.

“She just went into mum-mode,” Mr Almond said.

While they get along well and get up to a bit of mischief together, ‘gardening’ — Neo pulls out plants and Nova uses her brawn to rearrange heavy pot plants — the yard mates are not each other’s besties.

Loki, a little blue Staffy who lives around the corner will always have Nova’s heart. The pair had long forged their friendship before Neo arrived on the scene.

When Nova’s not on boundary patrol of the spacious quarter-acre block, Mr Almond reckons her mind is ticking over with escape plans for unauthorised playdates with him.

“She wants to go to Loki’s every day,” Mr Almond said.

Luckily for the dogs, their owners are good mates, too, so, while they don’t have time to get the pair together every day, they facilitate catch-ups every couple of weeks.

The story of how Neo — a Neopolitan mastiff with other breeds mixed in, potentially Rottweiler and Staffordshire terrier — came to join the family is also less orthodox than how most people choose their puppies.

Mr Almond and Ms Venables agreed to buy her without seeing her parents, so they didn’t know what she would look like or how big she might grow.

When they brought her home and put her in the laundry to sleep, she lasted one hour before their bleeding hearts brought the sobbing puppy into their bed, where she slept for her first six weeks with them.

Now she has grown so big — though still only half the size and weight of Nova — the dogs spend most of their time running themselves ragged outdoors in their large yard.

Seeing as she plays with frogs and brings their corpses back to her bed when she sleeps, it’s probably best she’s no longer in her owners’ bed.

Among her other unsavoury habits, Neo (still only one year old) has a penchant for chewing on the handle of her food knife and gardening tools, if any are left in her reach.

She’s also a masterful climber.

“She climbed a tree the other day,” Ms Venables said.

“We have to keep her away from the fences so she doesn’t try to climb over them.”

Unlike Nova, who adores small children “more than anyone” and exercises extreme gentleness around them, according to her doting owners, Neo won’t go near them.

“She thinks they’re alien,” Mr Almond said.

Despite their differences, Neo and Nova have a few more common interests.

They both enjoy playing fetch, sitting by the fire and will sit calmly for a treat and the chance to come inside every once in a while for some pampering and a snooze on the couch.