MODERN FAMILY
NOT quite sure how to break this to my husband, but I might have inadvertently agreed to us having two dogs, three cats, a rabbit and a parrot called Colin when I just said yes a lot and didn’t listen because I was making the tea.
They know exactly when your defences are down and when you might not be concentrating 100%... and they got me good and proper.
In my defence, I was trying to follow a very complicated recipe while trying to answer questions while watching an online event.
They were just waiting for the right opportunity to pounce, as the question of pets has been a recurring theme in our house for years. We have been resisting their pleadings for years, but it doesn’t stop me feeling bad and very guilty (not that this is a sign of me weakening if you are reading this, boys!).
The subject has come up once again because we are dogsitting for a friend this weekend and really looking forward to the experience.
I grew up on a farm and we always had a dog, a real menagerie of pets that included two goats and a hen called Perkins who quite literally “fell off the back of a lorry”, so I know the joy that can bring to a childhood.
After a particularly bad trip to the dentist when I was around nine, Cindy the Collie came along to make me feel better, then there was Tache the Jack Russell, who was “definitely going to be an outdoor dog”, but who was sleeping at the foot of my bed within a week of her arrival.
She would take to her bed and ignore us with her head in her paws and a particularly woeful look on her face when we came down for breakfast in our school uniforms, but run around the kitchen in excitement when we didn’t because she knew it was the weekend.
My dad used to pretend that he didn’t care for her much, but at dinnertime she could always be found by his side. He would secretly feed her little bits from the table, and when she passed away from old age while I was at university my parents were so upset they could hardly speak to break the news to me.
What I also know is that living on a farm with wide-open spaces is very different from living in a city. No matter how many times they promise that they will be the ones to do the dog-walking, I know exactly who will be out walking around the park at six in the morning, and the one who will be carrying and using the small black bags.
That is before we even get to working out what to do when we go on holiday.
Having a pet is one thing, taking care of it is a whole different thing that needs lots of concentration – as lots of people who thought getting a pet in lockdown was a good idea have discovered.
Who knows what will happen in the future? Maybe we should start with a goldfish called Trevor, and decide from there.