I read Red-Dog’s latest masterpiece on dogs and felt inspired to mention a story at how dogs came into my life.
It was in the summer of 2000 when I left behind my old life and began a new as a lodger to a thrity-five year-old Landlady. Part of my agreement with her, was that she would be allowed to keep up to two dogs in the house. To honest, I was so screwed up at the time that I took very little notice of the terms and conditions. In fact, I doubt if anything meant anything to me at the time. Perhaps my landlady had taken note of how little attention I was paying everything, because the first thing she did on my first day with her; was to again mention the dogs. It was only then that I realized what she meant. She meant DOGS IN THE HOUSE!
My old home was like……how do you put it….Greek! It was spotless and everything was prim and proper. In other words, dogs would NOT have been allowed. Anyhow, my wife back then hated dogs and was allergic to cats. Therefore, although we did get a kitten once, there was very little chance of owning a pet. But even then, the fish & chip shop trade left very little time for such a commitment. But dogs in the house? Is that what keeping a dog meant?
My thoughts soon turned to how I could convince this woman that keeping two dogs in the house was unclean. Funny thing was, by the tenth day, the landlady and I had become an “item”. In fact, she was more than that as she worked tirelessly to unscrew my head. To say she was incredible, would be an injustice to decency, understanding and compassion. But that’s another story.
Back to this one…..
I could not of course deny this woman a dog. And so Sasha (a German-Shepherd mix), came into our lives. But I guess it’s not just humans who get screwed up in life. But in Sasha’s case, she was beyond help and was put down just three weeks later. I could not have known the pain involved. But I at least I had learnt that dogs and I belong together. And of course, a few week later we were back to the RSPCA for another dog. Derek the dog was a Collie-mix that nobody seemed to want. But just like Sasha, we had been chosen. I began to bond with Derek instantly. And to be honest, there’s no bond like it. Sadly, I was to leave Derek behind in 2002 when his mummy and daddy had no choice but to part. The funny thing is, I would not have left if I had not been introduced to dogs in the first place. Confused? ……You see, Derek‘s, mummy (landlady) had two great needs. Dogs was one, children was the other.
The thing was, I couldn’t have understood either of those longings at the time; they were beyond me. But once dogs came into my life, I could understand what life would be without them. So what did it mean to long for a baby? How much stronger would that longing be? Again, that‘s another story. Suffice to say, although I had “healed” somewhat from my past, I was not ready for such a task. Having been a Dad before, I knew what it entailed. But I also knew that you cannot deny any woman her longing for a child. I guess there was no option but to walk away again. You want to know what fcking pain is?
Madness and desperation had begun all over again. But you want to know what fcking luck is? That was the day when I met my current wife, Leah. Again, this is a whole other story. Suffice to say , its now five years into the marriage and it’s getting better all the time. It seems that my landlady had started the healing process, and for Leah to nurse me back to full health. And you know what? LEAH LOVES DOGS!
The sad part is, our life is a little uncertain at the moment in terms of where we will be living. And as such, owning a cat and a dog (make that two), is just not viable. But at least things will become much clearer soon. In the meantime, we have to make do with stroking other peoples dogs in the local park, and visiting local pet stores. In fact, we went earlier today to look at some of puppies….the pain, the pain.
Our other pastime is to watch Animal Planet all day, and browse the web for puppy videos. Which leads to my reason for this post,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNWmDE2M-o8&mode=related&search=
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