I’m learning to value the hounds of love

AINE O’CONNOR I

F my life had been lived exclusively according to my own choices, I would never have had a pet. It’s not that I don’t like animals, I’m just not interested in them.

But because I have children, my life has not been lived exclusively according to my own choices. And those feckers, oops, I mean those little darlings do like animals — so we have had a great many.

The most enduring has been Buddy the madhound who came to us from the DSPCA in 2007 and has withstood his co-pets with varying degrees of tolerance. He loved the rabbit, hated the goat. His newest companion however is Max — a Shih Tzu who arrived as a puppy last summer.

Buddy was terribly nervous when we first got him — cowering and almost impossible to walk on a lead, never the kind of dog you could cuddle. He was very uncomfortable sitting in a room and he was snappy about food. He calmed a bit but mostly we just got used to him. Buddy was our dog-owning norm.

The puppy, however, has revealed a different world. He is so effusive, and thinks and Buddy are total BFFs.

Mistake. Buddy’s version of ‘effusive’ is opening an eye and wagging his tail. Max on the other hand collapses in delight every time he sees you. He seeks you out to sit with you, doesn’t snarl over food, chases his tail and plays with toys. He is, I suppose, a more textbook kind of dog.

It sounds traitorous to Buddy, and I don’t mean it like that, but he was a tough nut to crack, so with Max I do much better at understanding the companionship part of dog owning. I’m still not getting one when I grow up and have my own house though.