DOGGY DEVOTION
It’s ruff when you’re apart from a family’s best friend!
We’re in puppy-appreciation mode at our place at the moment. Rainy, dark, cold days make for good pup-snuggling weather.
It didn’t take long for our little Maltese to steal our hearts, but she’s so embedded into our family now, we wonder what we ever did without her. She’s become a valuable keepingwarm mechanism too – all that soft, white fur and warm, pink belly flesh make for a perfect little blanket. My daughter has almost taken to wearing her as an accessory, much like a lumpy scarf or woolly throw.
We recently had to leave the puppy, though, to go away to work in London to cover the royal wedding. We took the youngest with us. Teenagers are easy to leave behind – little ones not so much. So Marley was given the drill on being an “extra” on a work trip, thus ensuring she needed to be largely seen and not heard.
She did supremely well at being dragged around for work, endured long days and late nights, survived jetlag with aplomb and toiled hard on all the schoolwork she had. But what we hadn’t banked on was how much she’d miss our little ball of fluff.
It was the first time we’d ever had to leave her and we were a bit worried about that. As it turned out, a girlfriend of mine, who has a daughter Marley’s age and who loves dogs, runs a little dog-sitting business. She promised good care, lots of cuddles and a daily walk.
“But she doesn’t walk,” my daughter said, embarrassed. She’s a bit of a princess pooch and like lots of little dogs, she gets excited for about the first minute of the walk, then sits down exhausted, basically saying, “Pick me up and carry me please, humans.” She is defiant on the grass, refusing to move until we pick her up.
“Don’t worry,” our new dog sitters assured us. “We will take your princess and turn her into a proper dog!”
Despite my doubts, they did. A daily early morning walk had Lulu so enthused, she barely wanted to come home. But my daughter missed her terribly. Luckily, my girlfriend decided FaceTiming – where we could all say hello and give her virtual hugs and kisses – was a good idea. As well as daily photo updates of her walks and play time, we also got to video-chat to our precious pup. Marley was so relieved, and it was lovely to see the puppy being so well loved and cared for.
On arriving home, despite the early hour and the jetlag, Marley insisted on going straight to pick up the dog. We went to collect her and Marley was overjoyed to grab her ball of fluff back into her arms.
There was only one small problem – Lulu seemed quite attached to her new family. Once we got her home, she went straight to the front door and sat down waiting for her walk. Or was she trying to get back to the dog sitters? Either way, Marley wasn’t going to take the risk.
“We can never go away again,” she whispered to me.