Pollyism of the week

Do you ever get used to the smell of dogs and just don’t know your house smells like a wolf den? I’m a bit worried about my dog situation. I’d never had dogs up until 18 months ago. I was always a cat person. Well, that’s not true either. I liked cats and dogs, but cats were not really me and I had no concept of what having a dog was like.

All I knew was that cats smelled great and didn’t seem to give a toss whether you gave them attention or not, while dogs seemed a bit needy and very smelly.

When I met Tim (the future Mr Gillespie), he loved dogs. He’s had a dog as long as he can remember. There was Surf and Blue, who apparently came home one day with a sheep head in his mouth. I imagine he was a very big dog. Then there were three dogs called Scrunch. Very odd that he named three dogs Scrunch, but it would be a bit weirder if he’d had three wives all called Felicity.

“Let’s get a dog!” Tim would say enthusiastically almost every day. It wasn’t until he promised his mate he’d take care of his dog Kramer for a week that I learned to love dogs.

Initially I said to Tim, “He can’t sleep in the bedroom.” Then it became, “He can’t sleep on the bed!” Then it became, “I can’t give him back! I love him too much!”

Kramer was the nicest little guy I’d ever met. I was smitten and the kids were smitten. That dog was something else.

So when Tim said we could get Kramer’s little brother, I was in like a Tux dog biscuit rep at Fieldays. So we got Scrumbles. Tim tried to call him Scrunch, but he’s Scrumbles.

He’s half dog and half muppet. The thing is, I know he gets smelly. He’s a shaggy muppet of a dog and honestly sometimes he smells like a box of old boots, but I think I may have got used to doggy smell. Toast, my daughter’s dog, isn’t quite as smelly, but then again, she is full dog, with absolutely no muppet blood whatsoever.

I’m concerned that I have magically become a doggy lady who has no idea that her house smells like a wolf’s lair or a smelly, old wet sack. Maybe dogs place some magic spell on you so you can’t smell doggy in your home. They blind your senses with those big, brown eyes and the way they genuinely love you. They blunt your ability to catch a whiff of them because they honestly act like it’s the greatest thing that has ever happened when you get home from work.

I genuinely never imagined I’d be the weirdo lady who let her dogs snuggle up in bed. I didn’t think it would ever happen, but it has, and they probably do smell frightful and visitors probably think we are weird Bohemians. But gosh, if love and devotion had a fragrance, I think it would smell purely of doggy!