The one that stole my heart

Just over two years ago a little baby girl changed my world beyond my imagination and stole the biggest part of my heart. The arrival of this mega change to my life came as quite a surprise though. Here’s the story…

I had dogs at home for most of my life as I was growing up. These wonderful creatures have always held a special place in my heart and truth be told when I was getting ready to move out of my parents house, I thought that a home would have something missing without a dog. Marriage brought about quite a few adjustments with a new way of living. Let’s be honest, I was not born to be a housewife… at all! Balancing work and housework and rehearsals, and whatever else I decide to involve myself in (and rest assured there is always something) can be somewhat challenging, and was even more so in the beginning… 3 years ago. From the start though, I felt like our new home needed a bit more chaos in it, because clearly the chaos I create isn’t enough, and I decided I want a dog.

Getting a pet is not a decision one should take lightly. Jes (my husband) and I knew that there was a lot of responsibility involved and that we need to dedicate a lot of time to a dog. So this took months of discussion and deliberation, not just if we’re getting a dog, but what sort of dog to get too. To make matters worse I’m the sort of person that takes forever to take a decision, but if I set my mind and especially my heart on something, then I’d want it here and now. So for me to try and choose a breed that I think would match our characters, was quite a headache and took quite a bit of research. A few months had passed and I was still uncertain, but Cavalier King Charles Spaniels seemed to have the sort of characters that would fit perfectly with us.

On 11th February 2018, Jes decided to give me an early Valentine’s surprise. So in the afternoon, he decided to leave his parents’ house early after lunch, which I thought was utterly rude, to ‘go see a Landrover’, as he put it (please note my husband is obsessed with Landies and Ranges). ….. When we arrived he called the owner and a women came out of a balcony and asked us to ring the door bell and go upstairs. Now at this point, one would think, why go upstairs when a car would be on the street or in a garage? Rachel of course was completely oblivious thinking that perhaps they want to have a chat with us first. We got out of the lift and the woman greeted us at the door, telling us, I’m sorry I won’t let you in but we have to be very careful because of germs because of the ‘little ones’. Again completely oblivious, I was agreeing with her thinking she has young children or babies that she was protecting. Then she told us, ‘Let me go in to get them. I can’t keep them out here long though because they need to be kept warm by the fire’. I FINALLY started reacted thinking that was a weird unusual statement, but I still had no idea what she might be going on about.

When Maria returned (that’s the ‘Landrover owner’s’ name by the way), she came out holding a wicker basket in which were 5 little adorable creatures. I was totally gobsmacked. I mean just like in a cartoon, chin hanging to the floor, bright wide eyes and couldn’t say a word. Maria asked whether we’re looking for a male or female, and I was literally like, ‘a what’? I still hadn’t realised that we were there to choose a puppy for us to keep. Now here was the other problem, as I explained earlier, I take forever to choose something. Apparently when other people go to purchase puppies, they go with their minds set which gender they want, colour preference and possibly even a chosen name. I had to pick and choose all that on the spot since this was apparently my ‘Valentine’s Surprise’ – as my beloved husband put it.

I finally selected a female, tri-colour with three adorable black spots on her back, who seemed to have a cheeky character… perfect match. One thing that particularly captured my attention was the fact that her face was not symmetrical. He had a crooked white line in the middle of her face, and I thought, ‘ooooh look, weird and quirky just like me.’ Most Cavi’s have very symmetrical faces. I thought that this was a very special feature which makes our Cavi puppy more unique.

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I left Maria’s house shaking and terrified that in 8 weeks I’m going to be taking care of a living creature other than myself. 8 weeks! At least with a baby you have 9 months to prepare, 8 weeks was nowhere near enough, but at the same time, I couldn’t wait to hold my new puppy and cuddle her up! The new puppy…. the new puppy needs a name!!! Challenge number what??? I had to make choices again! Oh and I had to announce to the whole family that I was becoming ‘a mummy’! (Our parents told us we were crazy and that the dog will be our responsibility and they will not babysit. Now if we go to their houses with her, we will not be allowed in the house.)