The joy of pets

I've been thinking about this for a little while. I was signed off work early December and on 30th December we took a drive to a farm to choose a puppy.

I spent the previous day trawling the internet for adverts for puppies for sale. I duly booked 5 appointments to look at a range of golden, chocolate and black labrador puppies. Having done that in the morning, I took one more quick look in the afternoon and up popped a little of collie x shepherd puppies. I rang and booked an appointment there and then.

Travelling to the first place, I knew that we wouldn't be taking a puppy home that day and that there were lots of things to consider before taking on such a huge responsibility. We had previously discussed getting a puppy and knew we would eventually, it was just a the question about whether the timing was right that we had to settle.

The first place we visited was a working farm. Each time the farmer needed a new working dog he bred a litter and kept the last puppy to stay on the farm.  I fell in love with them straight away. The choice was simple. One dog, after playing and fussing, sat by us and just wouldn't move. We had to take him there and then. We met the mum and dad, aunties, uncles, nan etc. His whole family was on the farm!

Anyway, let's fast forward a little. We were blessed with the most adorable looking puppy.

 



I can't quite decide how much he has helped or hindered my recovery. Each day it was just me and him. At times it was massively overwhelming. He needed to be supervised constantly and house trained.  There were days when I was in floods of tears because I just didn't think he'd be housetrained or yet again he'd pulled the curtains, bitten the sofa, upset the birds and jumped up at the fish tank.

Slowly but surely we've worked through the initial stages of training a puppy. I am now doubly blessed with a caring, loyal, (mostly) obedient and beautiful 7 month old puppy. He seems to have this uncanny understanding of my illness. He knows when I'm having a bad day and will either leave me be or give me lots of cuddles. He gets me out and about. There is some sort of secret club of dog owners. When you have a dog so many people talk to you!

I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't be at this stage of my recovery if it wasn't for him. I'm always being told that exercise helps. I definately get that. He has given me focus, motivation to get up at 7 each morning and a reason to carry on.

The times that he's reduced me to tears seem to pale in significance now. I know he was awful at times. My illness made coping so much more difficult.

But here we are. I have no regrets. He's pushed me forward and for that I am eternally grateful. I will treasure him and give him the best life I possibly can. The bond we have is immense. Right now he is sat at my feet; he is my shadow. In time, he will replace the black, lurking shadow that is my depression.

sr x