The Reality of a Dog

It is coming up to that time of year again. When we have to start putting our money away for the dogs yearly booster jab. I can’t complain though because he is a great dog for going to the vets. He never has a whimper or complains, he goes bounding in and laps up the attention.

He does get a lot of attention at the vets. Not only is he the only beagle that they have on their books, he is also in there so much!

When we first decided to get a puppy we had a lot of advice, some wanted some not, about what type of dog to get. Then our friends brought a beagle (our dogs half-sister) and both Mr L and I fell in love with her. We decided we wanted one of them! We contacted the breeder and found out when the next litter was arriving.

Once they were born we went over to see the litter and to pick one of the dogs if we were interested. Well how could we refuse this tiny little bundle of gorgeousness!

We couldn’t so we put down our deposit for him and came home knowing that in 6 weeks time we would have our own little puppy!

Then we had to get everything ready, the crate for him to sleep him, find a vets, get a lead, bowl, bed, sort out his dog insurance we looked into dog training classes, and groomers. We were ready for him to arrive.

Now in hindsight I am so pleased we were this organised for him, because he hasn’t been an easy dog. I look at him now and he is three years old laying on the decking chewing his bone, and I love him to pieces.

However that love has been at a price. More accurately the price of three coats (two adults one child), three pairs of slippers, one pair of shoes, one pair of trainers, numerous pants, knickers, and boxer shorts, millions of socks, one months money for the mortgage! That was not a good day, £400 chewed up and ripped floating around the garden, Mr L and myself out with torches trying to find the remains!

We now have to replace the carpet in the hallway, as he has pulled up the end by the back door, and the end at the top of the stairs. We have to repair a wall where he has scratched so much that he has scratched through the whole wall and there is now a hole in it. All of this damage from one little puppy.

He is also a runner, and has run away so many times. He used to have a habit of running out the door when people came to visit. That has reduced but occasionally he still does it, the most memorable moment was when he ran out the door as Mr L was going for an interview. I was at home with Baba who was four months old. Mr L ran after him, and they got to the fire station before he caught him. The fire station is about a ten minute walk from our house, and is right on a main road! Mr L was late for the interview, the dog was not spoken to for the rest of the day!

But with all these faults and issues we still love him to pieces. The day he started to be sick at a year old, and was floppy. I rushed him down to the vets and he had a stone stuck in his small intestine, he had to have an operation as if it wasn’t removed he would have died, we were hysterical. We would all be lost without him, it cost us a lot of money, even with the insurance but there was no question about not paying it. He is our other baby.

We all love him, including Baba, and even though he keeps us on our toes we all still adore him and we wouldn’t change him for the world.