“Eww, you’re like one of those women who marry their husband’s best mate six weeks after he’s pegged it,” said my friend after I told her of our plans to get a new dog.
When I confessed we’d already chosen not one but two puppies to succeed our much-loved, recently deceased Daisy, her response was even more withering.
“So soon? That’s like snogging in the hospice.”
Ouch. To be fair, we cried when she died but poor Daisy had been ill for 18 months so we’d already done our mourning.
The Manchester Terrier-shaped hole left in our lives needed to be filled so that’s what we’re doing. But why are we filling it with two pets? Isn’t one dog the norm?
The norm for us, but not for dogs. Yes it will be a challenge (complete pain) to housetrain two leaky puppies and bring them both to obedience classes and pay double the vet bills.
But two puppies won’t be lonely when I leave the house. Two puppies won’t howl for a cuddle in the night, two puppies won’t dolefully pine – they’ll be too busy trashing the sitting room. Oh, and (entre nous) I’m broody.
“They will be the third baby I never had,” I dreamily told my friend. “The nightmarishly exhausting twins you never wanted, more like,” she muttered. One of us is right. Fingers crossed it’s me.
