Gizmo and his Ghost Writers
Gizmo 5/5/2009 – 8/12/2022
GIZMO was abandoned on the mean streets of Tenerife when he was one year old, and spent some time in the Accion-del-Sol refuge, before being adopted by Nikki and Richard. The first step on his meteoric rise to stardom came when he took over the role of spokes-mutt for Nikki’s Blog: TenerifeDogs blog
One of his first tasks was to be the poster pooch for Accion-del-Sol’s educational program. This involved visiting local schools, telling the children about the plight of stray mutts in Tenerife, and teaching them how to look after their pets properly. Before you could say “wag a tail” he’d been signed up by Island Connections newspaper to be their intrepid news hound, doggedly sniffing out the breaking news and giving the pooch perspective in his regular column: ‘Life According to Gizmo (It’s a Dog’s Life)’.
After graduating with a diploma from the Star Agility class, he decided to share his story with a wider public by enlisting Nikki and Richard to ghost-write his first book: ‘Nobody’s Poodle’. He also appears in Somebody’s Doodle. Besides his many other accomplishments Gizmo is an expert in woofing, sniffing, digging, chasing cats, siestas, and looking cute.
Gizmo passed away on 8/12/2022 – Rest In Peace our beloved dog.
NIKKI ATTREE
Nikki Attree is an artist, photographer and author living and working in el Medano, Tenerife, Spain. She graduated with a degree in photography from the University of Westminster, London, worked as a freelance photographer in the UK before moving to Tenerife in 2007, where she began making sculpture and painting with acrylics on canvas. Nikki will have a book of dog cartoons published in 2022, check out wooftasticcartoons.com
Along with her art work, Nikki also helps to promote the hardworking animal rescue centres in Tenerife, by producing calendars for them, and running social networking campaigns Gizmospokesmutt on Facebook.
She has published two books, co-written with her husband, Richard, and inspired by her work with the dog refuges and owning a rescue dog herself: ‘Nobody’s Poodle’ (published in 2013) and ‘Somebody’s Doodle‘ (2016) – both are available as paperbacks and e-books from Amazon. In 2022 she published another Book Dog Endz – A collection of wooftastic cartoons also available through amazon.
RICHARD ATTREE grew up in London in the 60’s and left home as soon as he could to study a variety of useless subjects (philosophy), and play keyboards in various unsuccessful bands. For the next 25 years he made his living (sometimes sporadically) as a composer of music for TV, working at the BBC’s renowned Radiophonic Workshop before going freelance with his own studio near Brighton. To hear some of his music visit his website: www.AttreeMusic.com.
Tiring of the stresses of freelance life he decided to retire, sell up, and “downshift” to a sunny, windy beach on The Reef (Tenerife). Despite working for most of his life as a musician, Richard has always hankered after the straightforward, direct communication of language when struggling with the complexities of producing electronic music or hauling tons of keyboards up several flights of stairs.
Retiring from the music business has given him the opportunity to get to grips with writing, as well as indulge in his other lifelong passion: windsurfing, which he and Nikki discovered together in the mid 80’s and which has intervened heavily in their lives since.To read about their windsurfing adventures, and life on the Reef, check out their blog: http://lifeonthereef.blogspot.com/