As mentioned last week, brother-in-law dropped dog off for us to dogsit whilst they went on a walking holiday (seems like the ideal time to have a dog if you ask me, but I didn't ask questions).
So their dog has been with us for a week now. I've absolutely loved it. She has curled up in the corner of my study as I've worked, greeted me like a long lost friend every time I've put the rubbish out and been great at getting me out of the house to go on walks.
She's settled in as if she's always been here, already she's got routines. Mainly around my son. Every morning at 4.45am she wakes him up by licking his nose and seems to know when his bedtime is and minutes before he goes upstairs she sprints up there and takes up the entire bed. I could swear that she's laughing as well.
On the first night she slept our bed. However after prancing up and down on it all night, meaning husband and I didn't get a wink of sleep - we decided that it was going to be a one night only event.
Needless to say when dropped off this dog was sleek and brushed, it didn't go on the sofas and we were told we'd be unlikely to get her upstairs. Tomorrow she goes back to her real home - she's a bit feral now. She's on the other side of the room asleep on the sofa as I speak, she's spent huge portions of the week upstairs - but that's mainly because that's where my study is.
She's also spent a lot of the week being walked around the local nature reserve, where the grasses are very high at the moment. As a result of this her coat is full of burr's and similar and she will not let us take them out. I'm hoping that she can come and stay again soon, but I have a vague feeling that brother-in-law will use us only as a last resort.
It has however left me massively dog broody, I've just been on the dogs trust and rspca websites. You keep hearing on the news that there are record numbers of dogs being abandoned, I have to say there's no evidence of this. There only seem to be very old dogs that are waiting for rehoming. I rehomed a 6 year old before, I personally wouldn't do it again because that means that they've had 6 years to build up bad habits. Also it means that you get such a short time with them. It took me 5 years to get over the death of my last dog. I still have 'moments' even now.
There are a number of kennel club dogs for sale at the moment, both puppies and rehoming. I'm going to have a serious conversation with husband tonight. It's important to mention that husbands memory of this week is very different. I don't think he's going to leap at the opportunity.
I found that I could manage the morning and the lunchtime walks quite happily. But as soon as I finish work I make supper for family. For the first couple of days I then took dog out after supper, but found that meant I was on the go from 06:15 up until about 20:00 and after 2 days I was on my knees. So I really need commitment from family for it to work as somebody has to either cook supper or take the dog out after work.
Right now I'm typing this whilst watching the olympics. I have no interest in sport, but for some reason the olympics has always enthralled me. Obviously the most exciting one was London 2012 (because I'm from the UK), but all of them are great. And GOSH I'd love to visit Japan - it just looks so amazing. Let's see if the world gets back to normal enough for us to do trips like that. I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever get to the other side of COVID it's just dragging on and on and on.
I mourn the life we used to have and feel so desperately sorry that son could potentially be growing up in a world that's very different. Though to be fair, it will be his normal. Going back through this blog (which I started during COVID) it's interesting to see how my thought process has changed. I thought we would be able to get rid of it, but now that's clearly not going to happen.
I've stuck to the rules, I've been very good, but increasingly I'm getting more and more militant (whilst still being careful for the sake of others). I can't help thinking that we've been lied to terribly for the past 18 months.
I think it's going to be fascinating looking back at this period. I feel that over the next 5 to 10 years there is going to be a lot of analysis and some pretty shocking information will be revealed. Just this weekend I was watching a recording on telly from about a year ago and suddenly one of the 'stay home' adverts came on telly from around April last year. At the time, when it was all so new and scary these seemed really rational.
A year on and I'm shocked by how over dramatic they were. This is not me saying that the difficulties for many and the terrible loss of life there has been across the world are meaningless - it's truely been a shocking and scary time for so many. What I mean is that they really had gone full disaster movie drama for the advertisements. A year on and I wonder what was behind this - it makes me nervous.
So that's really it for this week, it's pretty much been dog, dog, dog - still there are worse weeks to be had.
Quick update - dog has just gone home - I'm so sad, I feel like part of my family has been taken away.
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