Thanks - Day 5

......................© Nicky Linzey 2005

I'd wanted a dog for ages but the time never seemed to be right. I realised I just had to do it or I'd never get one and had talked Gray into it - well sort of! I wanted a big black retriever/cross type dog and visited several dog's homes looking for the exact one - imagining it would be quite easy to find the perfect dog for me - I couldn’t have been more wrong and I was getting frustrated. However just as I stopped looking I found him.
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It was a series of unplanned events that led to this happening. I was meeting a friend for a walk with her dogs and I was just about to leave when she rang to ask if I could pick her up. This meant I took a different route to normal and we drove past a dog sanctuary that I hadn’t noticed before. I jammed on the brakes nearly causing a catastrophe both inside and outside of the car and we went in. There was a £1 per person charge to see the dogs but we had no money with us, they let us in anyway – surprise, surprise! A kennel girl showed us around and told us the story of every dog, they were all very large - Alsatians, Rottweilers, Dobermans etc. Some sadly had been in their tiny concrete kennels for 7 years and could not now be re-homed, some were going to the army or police force to be trained as working dogs. Anyway as we were walking down the row of kennels I spotted this small, thin, white and ginger scruffy looking dog in another kennel block nothing like the big black dog I wanted. I don’t know why but I couldn’t take my eyes off him, he was standing on his back legs frantically trying to get out of his kennel. I had already stopped listening to the girl and now I interrupted her by saying “Is he up for re-homing?” He was … I went into his kennel to see him and he loved the attention, he was weeing with nerves and was desperate to get out. At that moment I knew this little terrier was the one for me, although I actually think I was the one who was picked! I had to wait an agonising 24 hours as somebody else had seen him before me and were interested - luckily for us the kennels rang to say they'd changed their minds and I took Gray to see him. The rest is history.

Looking back now on how this whole incident happened something strange occurred to me. About 6 months before we made the decision to get a dog, Gray's mum was very ill with cancer and was going into a hospice. We were in the car taking her there and she suddenly said “When you go to get your dog, I’m coming with you!” We were a bit taken aback as we had not talked about getting a dog - also she really was not well enough to do this. “Of course,” we said and it was never mentioned again as 3 months later she died. Going over the events that led me to find My Jack Russell it actually seemed that she had been with me – guiding me to kennels I had never noticed before and she had a preference for small white scruffy little dogs!

We've had My Jack Russell now for 8 years and he has given us so much pleasure - he is perfect even if he isn't big or black. I realise that if I'd waited for exactly the right time & exactly the right dog I'd still be waiting now!