Happy Bingley Day!

Sunday 11.10.09

We brought Bingley home from the Dogs Trust. I was over excited the night before and stayed up doing lines (of patchwork, not coke) until after 4 am. Managed to haul myself awake to get to the mandatory meeting at 9.30. I hadn't realised how many people adopt a dog each week, there must have been upwards of twenty families all excited to be collecting their dogs. The atmosphere was electric. If aliens had materialised into the meeting they wouldn't have been able to make it out. Entire families whose attentions were entirely consumed by a flat but speedy monologue delivered by a young woman in working clothes, ending in the handing out of yellow carrier bags.

Bingley was very excited to be coming away. We had some bad news though. It turns out that as well as the operation on the lump on his eye, he has also been diagnosed with knee displacia. I felt quite crotchety about this, while I accept that any dog can become ill, I don't want to fall in love with an animal that is already sick and have to pick up the financial and cost of it. I blame great uncle Stephen who brought me up to treat animals with respect, but not to treat them like humans. 'An animal', he would say, 'has to be worth it'. I warned the family that if a big problem develops, Bing will have to go back to the Dogs Trust. Then, I went back to bed. The house was full of Nina and H and their friends. It was too much for me, but Bing seemed to enjoy the fuss. Darcy decided to pretend he wasn't there.

When the house went quiet, I came down and Nick was kind, making me a good jacket potato with prawns for tea. It was delicious in the way that simple food can be. The potatoes are noticeably excellent at the moment.

Bing's arrival makes for the beginning of a new journey. Let's see how it goes.