WLTM: Our Next Dog

Posted by Jacq in Blog, Family Life | 4 comments

Regular readers will remember we lost our old dog about 6 weeks ago.

It’s not been easy without him; before he died he didn’t do much except join us on our walks, but he could always be relied on to bark at the front door if someone knocked. Now he’s gone, we might actually need to get a doorbell.

I miss him at odd times. I keep ‘seeing’ him lying beside my bed or in the hallway, or ‘hearing’ him move around upstairs. And I feel awfully lopsided walking only one dog.

I haven’t even managed to get into the vets, pay the cremation fee and pick up his ashes yet. I tell everyone that it’s because I’m too busy, but it’s really that I don’t want to. Having a small box with his name on, in the house will make it just too real in some ways.

The kids are coping fine; they stop now and again, look sad and tell me they miss him, but in the next breath are asking when we can get a new puppy.

The one who is really suffering is The Lurcher. She really misses her friend. The house sitters we had were good with her but when we got home we could tell she had lost weight. Everyone who has seen her recently has commented on how subdued she is and she seems to have lost a lot of confidence when we meet new dogs on our walks.

The kids are trying to give her lots of strokes and cuddles and she will play with them a bit, but you can tell she’s got one ear cocked listening for Old Boy coming down the stairs to join in. When we go for a walk somewhere I used to take the dogs together, she jumps out of the car and looks around madly, like she expects him to be there. Maybe she thinks we just left him behind somehow.

It’s heart breaking.

The only time she cheers up is with a bunch of other dogs that she knows. The dog walker says she is bright and cheerful when she’s out with him and his pack.

We always planned to get another dog sooner or later but it looks like we are going to have to do it ‘sooner’.

We want a rescue dog as there are so many dogs out there needing homes. We don’t want a pure breed. I’d like a collie x, DH would like a lab x, but any older sensible dog that was happy to play with The Lurcher and keep her in line would be ideal.

However, considering any new dog we get is going to need to be dog friendly, cat friendly, child friendly and small furry friendly, we are more likely to end up with a puppy. I don’t relish another round of toilet training but maybe this one will get the idea quicker than The Lurcher.

We have trawled all the dog rescues, signed up for email updates and I am checking for new dogs every day but quite a few Rescues don’t rehome dogs to families with children under 6, so we are ruled out immediately.

It seems a shame as we can offer a good home to the right dog. I’m home most of the time, we have a big garden and there are lots of lovely walks in the area.

Our next dog has to be out there somewhere, surely?

We just wish he’d hurry up and arrive!