Just a quick blog tonight, I thought I would talk to you about dogs! This is our dog, Ralph
Now, I am sure many of you are dog lovers, but for me animals have never really been my thing. I have told you about the lady who came out to talk to me about getting a guide dog, even now I still think of the massive responsibility owning a guide dog is, more so than a pet, because they are not pets, don't get me wrong, you love them like part of the family, actually many people love them more than their family, but which ever way you look at it, a guide dog is there to do a job, to help people cope better in their environment, the bond and trust between a guide dog and its owner becomes unbreakable.....I am not ready for a guide dog, for many reasons, but mostly because I break things easily!
Anyway, I am already drifting away from what I was going to say! we will have had Ralph for two years in January, we had him from six weeks old, which I now believe is too young for a pup to leave its mum, but there we go!
He is a Chinese crested Pomeranian/Chihuahua cross, and well, he can be a bossy little bugger.
For years my girls wanted a dog, and I had put them off, but the first year I spilt from my partner was so difficult I felt we needed something else in our lives, something for us all to share and care for. So I bit the bullet. The first few days and nights were a complete bloody disaster, he peed, pooed and puked everywhere and cried all night, three nights in and he was still crying all night, even after trying all the usual tricks, like playing soft music, leave a ticking clock near his bed so it sounds like a heart beat, giving him a soft toy or wrapping him up in a blanket, so I did the unforgivable, I went downstairs scooped him up and took him back to bed with me, he curled up beside me and fell asleep straightaway, I, however, laid there all night totally pissed off with myself, knowing that I had just let myself in for a nightmare, like with babies when you take them to your bed its really hard to get the little buggers back into their own beds.
The following night, we put him in his crate, and he sat there all tiny and fluffy watching our bedtime routine, then he curled up like a tiny pretzel and I turned off the lights and went up to bed. I waited for the crying to start, but it didn't! I crept downstairs the following morning at 6am, I was sure he was dead, but there he was all bouncy and tail wagging so I took him out for a wee, from then on he has slept all night but is awake at 6am expecting to go for a wee!
He is a absolute delight for my girls, I am still sure he thinks that my youngest daughter is a puppy, they fight and argue, I shout at them and the next time I look they are curled up on the sofa together watching The Big Bang Theory!
Over the last 21 months he has grown so much and he and I have a bond that I never thought you could have with a animal, he gives me a reason to get out of bed each morning, for a small dog he walks for miles and miles, he knows all my worries as on our stomps over the fields I have moaned, chattered and cried!
I catching doing daft things, like the day he thought it might be quite nice if he jumped on top of his bed and then cried his eyes out because he couldn't get down...
And we have had a nasty few experiences where he thought it would be ok to go and pee on our beds, this was NOT OK, and very nearly was drop kicked over the back fence, this luckily (fingers crossed) hasn't happened for a while, this is mostly due to us keeping the bedroom doors shut rather than him realising that its a bad thing to do!
The point is, I have noticed over the last month or so that he has started looking out for me, I am sure he knows I am, well, different from the other humans around him. When we were walking the other day, he went over a little wooden bridge first but when he got down the steps the other side he sat and waited for me to get over and down the steps safely, then he looked up at me with this toothy grin thing he does and then shot off, I thought it was cute, but didn't think too much of it.
Then the other day I was sold the wrong travelcard for my daughter at our train station and didn't notice until I had got home, so I put Ralph on his lead, stuffed my phone, my bank card, the incorrect travelcard and a photocopy of her 16-25 railcard into my coat pocket and my door key and poo bags in the other pocket, as we walked the short distance to the train station it began to pour with rain so I put my hood up from my coat and picked up the pace..then bugger me, if my phone didn't start to ring, so I yanked my phone out of my pocket to answer it, I chatted to my sister for a few minutes, and I knew Ralph had fallen behind, but I assumed he was getting stroppy with the rain, when I got to the end of the lead I gave him a little yank without turning around, he didn't budge, so I finished saying goodbye to my sister and turned around saying, FFS RALPH, ITS POURING WITH RAIN HURRY THE HELL UP!!! As I focused on him I saw he was sitting with his paw on the contents of my pocket and he wasn't moving until I had noticed...what a clever dog, I found a dog treat in the bottom of my pocket and gave him a big fuss, he was well chuffed with himself!
Then this morning, we went for a walk, we walk a familiar route, he knows where I cross the roads etc. We have had storm Angus here and over night we had a lot of rain and high winds bring all the leaves off of the trees covering the paths. Ralph kept ahead of me during the whole walk with his nose to the ground, I always cross the road when I am on my own where the path has bobbles on so I know the kerb is low on both sides of the road, I couldn't see the path with all the leaves but Ralph managed to keep me away from the edge of the road and found the bobbles on the path and sat waiting for me to catch up and then waited for the traffic to pass before standing ready to cross the road, he has also started to sit and wait at the zebra and traffic light crossings, standing when the cars stop and he hears the peeping!
Perhaps this little tiny dog IS guide dog material after all....well maybe in our eyes anyway!
speak soon xx
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