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Monday 19 January 2009

Pieces falling into place

Hi everyone, I'm baaaaack! Rested and refreshed.



Isn’t it strange how seemingly unrelated events and coincidences can somehow roll into each other, leading to an unexpected conclusion?

Two days before we went away, we went to dinner at our neighbours’ house – the neighbours that P helped out with harvest. They had just bought two pups – Chihuahua crosses, so obviously not working farm dogs! On the way home, I asked P how come they could have ‘pet’ dogs when he maintained that farmers only ever had working dogs. He muttered something non-committal and I forgot about it. I’d become resigned to never replacing the pet dog I had when we married (she died ten years ago).

When P booked our holiday he did it over the internet. Originally he booked a 3-bedroom apartment in a holiday complex. The next day the Travel Centre emailed to say that they were sorry, but someone else had booked the same unit only minutes before him. Would he like to rent a house on the other side of the park that had everything we needed and was slightly cheaper? Sounded good.

As we pulled up to the door, a beautiful Golden Retriever stood up on the verandah of the house next door to have a look at us. I love Golden Retrievers, so when I saw her I said, “If I was allowed to have a dog, I’d have one just like that!” P just ignored me.

After inspecting the house (lovely place, old but comfortable) we went into the back garden. There was no fence between our place and next door and the dog was just disappearing into a little ‘shed’ at the top of the hill. We went to say hello. There she lay, with nine tiny puppies.

You can imagine what we spent most of our holidays doing. Those pups were the most cuddled pups in the whole world. They grew from droopy-eyed balls of fur to happy pups with personalities in just the space of those two weeks and we each had a favourite. Of course, we all pestered P to be allowed to have one, but he had a myriad excuses as to why we couldn’t.

One day, while the owner was with us, Dynamo asked yet again if we couldn’t have one. This time P said, no, we were going home on Sunday and they were too little to leave their Mum and it was too far to come back. The lady shook her head, “That’s all right, I have to deliver one to my sister in Perth in mid-February. You could pick one up from me when I come up.” For a moment I thought I saw P looking thoughtful, but then he made more excuses and went back inside.

The day before we left, we all went up to say a sad goodbye to the pups. As we leaned over the board keeping them in, I said, “I’m going to miss this lot.” P turned to me and said, “So, which one do you want?”

He’d arranged with the owner to buy one for our 20th Wedding Anniversary, which by coincidence is in mid-February. We don’t normally buy each other anything for anniversaries, but we’d talked about it on the way down to Albany and decided that we should do something special for our 20th.

So, here she is, my pup, the pet dog I thought I’d never have unless we left the farm (or I left P!). Isn’t she beautiful? She was the smallest of the litter, but full of beans and inquisitive. As yet unnamed. I’m trying to think of something a little more imaginative than ‘Goldie’ that suits her at the same time as making her ‘mine’, but I’ve got a whole month to think of something. Now I’ve got her photo on the fridge, just like I did with Dynamo’s and Sausage’s baby photos when we were allocated for adoption, but had to wait to pick them up.



Roll on mid-February! But what on earth do I get P for our anniversary? How can I match that?

7 comments:

C.R. Evers said...

OMG!!!!!!

1st, welcome back

2nd ! OMG! What an adorable little guy!

This post gave me goose bumps, teary eyes and a mushy heart all at once!

Congratulations!

I've missed seeing you around. Glad you're back! Enjoy your pup!

Christy

Kate said...

My goodness, Christy! That was a quick response.
I'm glad to be back, though it was good to have a break.

Brenda said...

Kate, Welcome back! What an adorable puppy...I hope we hear all about your puppy training adventures...grin..

p.s. I nominated you for the Kreativ Blogger Award on my blog...

Luc2 said...

Welcome back, indeed. Nice to know you had a good time.

Great story, great present. I have no clue how you're going to top that, Kate. I think P really hit the target.

Rena Jones said...

Oh, how adorable! She is absolutely precious! What a wonderful story and I can't wait to hear more about her!

Kelly Polark said...

What a sweet story. How fun to vacation by a litter of pups! Your new puppy is adorable and a very sweet gesture by P. We are getting a puppy next month...I can't wait! Enjoy your new little one!

Kate said...

Thanks, everyone. I didn't sleep last night, trying to think of a name. I'm as excited as a kid!

Brenda - thanks for the award! I'll get onto it soon!