NaBloPoMo Day 8 - Rain Rain Go Away

Having a dog is great. When I was growing up my Mum always said no when I asked to have a dog. She was quite right when she said that she'd end up looking after him or her because what child has the attention span to want to get up early and go to bed late so that the dog can be walked three times a day? When we did eventually get a dog she was like my best friend and then when I had to leave home and leave her behind (and of course when she eventually passed away) I missed her terribly. It took years before hubby and I felt that we could justify having a dog ourselves. Both working full time, we have always been conscious that a dog would be shut in alone for most of the day, but then Steve started working shifts so the dog is rarely home alone.

When we got Dexter I felt like a hole in my life had been filled. I was always meant to have a dog (I guess that's the very definition of a dog person) so having him around has genuinely been fullfilling. There are days though when I could wish for things to be a little bit different.

I would never regret getting our boy and I wouldn't want to give him up, but getting up early every morning can sometimes be a bit of a drag. It's also an inconvenience when you're ill and still have to take the dog out for walks, even though you feel like collapsing when you walk from the bedroom to the bathroom and back again. And you really notice the weather when you have a dog.

It has rained non-stop today, varying from light drizzle to rain to heavy downpour. So far today I have got wet once and soaked twice and this weatheris set to continue for several more days. Even Dexter doesn't like the rain. But unfortunately for me, he likes his walks more so off out we must go, weather be damned. So for now I will suck it up and quietly chant (while getting wet AGAIN) "rain rain go away, come again some other day".

NaBloPoMo Day 3 - Disco Dog

We've had our new best friend, Dexter, since January. The nights were long and dark and cold then, often calling for a fleece jacket, scarf, gloves and a warm coat over all that to fend off the chill. But back then, having only just brought Dexter home from the shelter, we were wary about letting him off the lead and waited several weeks before doing so. By then the nights were a little shorter so we weren't always out in the pitch black but even then we both realised we would probably need some form of light come this autumn and winter.

Sure enough, as the days grew shorter and the nights drew in, I treated us to a nice little wind-up torch from Amazon Marketplace. It's lightweight and handy for finding the gum gum (a sort of rubber stick, which is Dexi's favourite toy) and we never have to worry about the battery running down. However, we still sometimes struggle to find our mostly black dog in the dark. Every now and again he will jog on ahead and disappear completely into the night, only to be (occasionally) located as two glowing green marbles off in the distance, reflected in the light of the torch. He doesn't usually go too far and is nearly always waiting patiently for us to catch up but it's nice to know where he is.

This afternoon, I struck upon the perfect solution. The local pound shop sells everything from sweets and crisps to bleach and all for a pound (or more). I was in there picking up some curtain rings for Mum and scouting for a combination padlock for hubby's first foray in the gym for almost half decade. The shop has a small cycling section, mostly consisting of seat pads, puncture repair kits and reflectors, but today they had little flashing LED lights on elastic and sold in packs of two. At a quid I figured it was worth a try.

Success!

Even in the darkest bits of the park we can still locate our boy by his little blinking red light. Instead of looking for the torch reflecting off his eyes we can now see him straight away, no matter which direction he's decided to randomly run off in. Its also much harder for him to dummy us into looking for the gum gum that he's already found, retrieved and run off with. Although the red does make him seem rather demonic, at times it's like something from the Mothman Propechies, score one for the home team!

It's a Dog's Life

Like any other person heading off on holiday, I pack my holiday essentials: sun cream, toothbrush and books, Books BOOKS. This June was no different. One of the books I decided to take was Marley and Me by John Grogan. I saw the film a little while ago and thoroughly enjoyed the tortuous tale of a young family and their maniacal mutt. And the book was a marvelous read and I highly recommend it, whether you have seen the film or not.

When I was little - I mean really little - I always wanted a dog and was not allowed to have one. My parents were justifiably concerned that being a child, I would not take good care of a dog and the responsibility would therefore be left to them... or rather Mum! Mum finally yielded following a break-in and we went to a local family that had just had a litter of Border Collie pups.

It was my brother, David, that picked out our treasured family pet. She was originally called 'Dotty' but Mum insisted that she was not going to walk around the village calling "Dotty... Dotty... Come here Dotty!" so we quickly renamed her 'Brèagha', Gaelic for beautiful. Although the name was apt (she was a beautiful dog all her life), Dotty was perhaps just as apt because she was a complete nutcase! She hated men and barked non-stop at any man (other than David, Dad or my husband, Steve) who entered the house. She had a penchant for digging, which manifested initially in uprooted rose bushes or holes under the fence (despite the gate being wide open all the time) and later in a six foot hole at the side of the house, which Dad discovered only when my parents eventually moved. She used to sit on your shoulder (was she a dog or a parrot?) and watch TV. She was particularly fond of Star Trek The Next Generation and used to sit a foot away from the TV and tilt her head from side to side. She loved yoghurt pots, even when they was no yoghurt in them; plant pots, without the plants; and plastic lids, which she could destroy within 24 hours. She wouldn't eat unless you tried to take her food away and loved nothing more than a good game of 'My Bone'. She chased sheep, rabbits, birds, cats, people and even cars; one time she did actually catch a rabbit... and then promptly let it go because she didn't know what to do with it. Her answer to grooming was to swim in a river, in the sea or any other body of water, as long as it wasn't clean. She hated the bath and the brush in equal measure. She used to run in fear of Dad's hiccups but couldn't love enough when you came home after being away - even if 'away' was five minutes to nip round the corner to the shop. She was my best friend as I grew up and the day she had to be put to sleep (due to cancer that had spread in her hind quarters) was no less heartbreaking than the day my brother died because she was just as much a part of our family.

The wonderful thing is, reading Marley and Me and chatting to a colleague at work who has just got a new pup, my experience of having a dog, and the love that I and my whole family felt, is not unique. John Grogan suggests that you can learn a lot from a dog and asks how many people in the world can make you feel so loved. What is also incredible is the connection that you can feel to other dog owners. You share a great common ground and together you laugh at your pets' follies, despair at their lunacies and you share joy and pain at their lives and deaths. A dog might bring noise, chores and fur in abundance to your home, but he or she brings so much more. I miss my dog and if it wasn't for the fact I work 5 days a week, I would have another in a heartbeat.