A helpful pooch fetches his disabled owner's cat from upstairs every night when dinner is ready - so she doesn't have to climb up and wake the sleeping moggy herself. Tracy Roper's muscle fatigue condition means she'll take any help she can get around the house and cockapoo Alfie, six, appears fit for the job.
The clever cockapoo knows that Tracy struggles on the stairs so dashes up and herds Misty down from wherever she is sleeping. The 51-year-old revealed startling footage of her telling him to 'go and tell Misty her tea's ready' before he races upstairs and out of shot.
Just seconds later the three-year-old cat appears around the corner with Alfie nudging her from behind until they're both at the foot of the stairs where the moggy's bowl is. Tracy, who has chronic fatigue syndrome and is unable to work, says he does this every day because he recognises she needs help when Misty doesn't respond to her shouts.
The mum-of-one describes him as Misty's big brother and almost 500 commenters on her Facebook post last Wednesday [March 22] have been left astonished by his mature role in the family. Tracy, from Blyth, Northumberland, said: "He's so helpful. When I realised he could do it I thought 'bloody hell, that's quite handy'.
"I struggle to get up and down stairs on a regular basis so one night I told him to go and find Misty and off he went. I just use that all the time now. He nudges her from behind as if to tell her to hurry up because I've been shouting her. He must realise I need the help.
"Sometimes she comes down by herself but when she's asleep around dinner time she won't hear us. I thought we'd have to video it because it's quite clever. I'm amazed by it when I watch it back and It makes me feel proud that other people think he's clever too. There's no hand signals or anything. You just say his name and then give him the instructions."
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Tracy says he's been rounding up Misty before dinner time for around six months. The mum, who also lives with husband Karl Roper, 48, says Alfie even 'realises when she's not feeling well' and won't leave her side when she's not.
Her Facebook post said: "My Alfie. He's a big help for me. Every night he gets the cat for her tea if she doesn't come down when I shout at her. It saves my legs!"
