Last September my mam's doggy Daisy gave birth to 7 mewling mouse like things. Our daughter Thea took great delight in pretty much living at her Grandma's house while helping feed Daisy, keeping the puppies clean ( she is an excellent poo picker upper) and socializing them. She thrived in this position of responsibility and formed a particular attachment to a little pup then named Sully ( green collar).
Yes ok so I spent a large amount of time with the puppies too. But seriously PUPPIES!! Although the one pup I didn't get to cuddle much was little green collared Sully due to the inseparability of Thea from him.
As we approached the time the puppies would be going to their forever homes we started to consider keeping one. Not that we would have much of a choice as Sully would have had to be surgically removed from Thea to make room for a different pup. We started to weigh up the pros and cons of having a dog. It is a huge responsibility after all, and I was more than a tad reluctant. I worried we would struggle with him when Nate's health was poor, about house training, and about how he would "be" with Nate and all of his noisy equipment. A yappy or nervous dog wouldn't cope with our usual chaos and the variety of people who come to the house in their profession capacities. But here was a little girl who bloody loved this puppy, already adept at caring for him, who has quite a tricky life at times. And me, didn't I deserve something fluffy and positive? I was convinced Nate would benefit from the sensory experience of fur and a good lick. Michael was doing a decent impression of not being overly fussed about the puppies in general ( liar liar pants on fire) but came round to the idea fairly quickly, and before I did. We knew what we were taking on having both grown up with dogs and that made us pause, think, and then make a carefully considered decision. Many, many people think that we are quite mad taking on a dog. But what is one more piece of madness in our lives?
We had made the decision a long time ago not to have any more children, even before we found out the fun fact that I am a carrier of a faulty ATRX gene which causes PMLD and very serious complex health issues in boys. I couldn't have coped with another baby, healthy or with ATRX. Not alongside all that Nate deals with on a daily basis, our constant lack of sleep, and already struggling to spend quality time with his sister. This dog could complete our family in the way only a dog can, forcing us out and perking us up when things get bad and we are feeling low.
Sully met Nate several times at his most manic where he is hot, sweaty and bit thrashy aroundy ( very typical of ATRX boys). 
The little puppy just curled up on his lap and went to sleep. I think this was the moment I thought "yes".Sully became Freddie and as soon as he was old enough we brought him home.
Thea's relationship/ obsession with Freddie was never in any doubt but I had wondered about Nate and Freddie, however the boys get on well. A bit too well. Freddie likes to give Nate a good lick hello and check how he is. Urgh. No objections from Nate in that respect.
US? Well we get the fluffy cuddles, enjoy amazing greetings, get to walk Freddie and play with him in the garden. I'm not going to lie the early morning wake ups after a dodgy night with Nate are quite hard, as are early mornings when we have care in and could have stolen a few extra hours of sleep. House training has me demented. One day everything is done outside or on a puppy pad, the next day there's a huge poo on the floor and I'm convinced this is in direct retaliation for me leaving him. Then there's the weird shit Freddie finds and eats. Seriously where does it come from? "What the hell is that?", is a frequent expression when picking up poo. We've already had one vet trip due to eating plastic. There does seem to be part of Nate's mat missing so that probably explains that.
The dog is a huge pain in the arse at times but at least he gives us something to talk about.
Our fluffy pal.
No comments:
Post a Comment