New Boy

Wednesday 14.10.09

The household is adjusting to life post-Bingley. I am more certain that having a new dog is like having a new baby. Without the breast-feeding though. Everybody gets a new role, responsibilities enlarge, especially in the area of dealing with poo and pee that is not our own. There are confusions over what the new member of the family is trying to communicate, why it has been communicated at 3am, and arguments over what to do about the communication. Siblings have a tendency to vie for attention and fall out at meal-times. It comes as a relief that where dogs are concerned it is morally acceptable to shout 'pack it in' as loud as I can manage. I expect nodules on my vocal chords to sprout any time soon.

Bingley, as it turns out, is clever, funny and likes a cuddle on the sofa. His hobby is chewing up cushions. In spite of advice to the contrary, we relented after 24 hours and took him out on a lead for a long road walk. He and I both were going stir crazy and felt better afterwards. Today, we went to the park in the dark and ventured off lead for a minute or two, hearts thumping in case Bing decided to run for the hills. He was happy to hang around quite close and come back for a treat. I like to think he has no intention of getting lost or being abandoned again. Whatever happened to him in his old life, he must have been loved. He is soft-hearted, does tricks, walks nicely on a lead, and we've had no toilet problems in the day (at night, a different matter, but we can't have everything). I wonder if his former family miss him and how they came to part.

My days have mostly been taken up with Bingley, but I've had time for one additional obsession. Project Runway, the TV show where fledgling dress designers compete for an irrelevant prize. I enjoy seeing what they come up with and judging their efforts. I've even put the programme in the TV planner. Unfortunately I've done a big fat zero towards my studies. This is worrying as various facebook friends are commenting that they are into it and enjoying it. I think that it's just procrastination and that adrenaline will kick in soon with the tutorial looming at the weekend. Nick is having a long weekend off starting tomorrow so that will be a further, lovely, distraction.

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.

Thursday 8.10.09

Good news today. We heard from the Dogs Trust that, all being well at the vets, Bingley will be able to come home with us on Sunday. We're all looking forward to it, and finally agreed on his name. I think it may have been more intense and taken more time than our choice of the children's names. There was a long long-list, followed by a shortlist of Bilbo, Floyd, Howie and Bingley. As in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Mr Bingley will be Mr Darcy's best friend.

Having a bigger, livelier dog will provide me for another opportunity to avoid getting on with college work. We will have to go back to giving the dogs a long walk every day. When we lost Cleo, we lost the habit. Darcy is small and mild enough not to insist on being walked, but it's bad of us not to as he loves it so much. I look forward to the incentive, and to getting to know the new guy. So here I sit in limbo, like an expectant father awaiting a new arrival. I've been nesting (well, getting out the training crate) and telling all my friends, and have a feeling of anxious anticipation. Hmm, worrying about how to pay for the new little one too, come to think of it. Happily, I don't have to give birth, otherwise I definitely would settle for just the one. No stretch marks and lochia this time.