My adopted child

When I was growing up we had a couple of dogs who graced our lives, our first dog was Candy, an ivory Pug, she had the most adorable personality, I would dress her in my dolls clothes and play with her for hours. Her kind and meek personality shone through even in the most hideous of booties and bonnets J Shortly after we got Candy we got Cindy, a brown Toy-Pom, whose looks were a clear indication of nature’s sick sense of humour, because she was small and cuddly looking but had the bite of a Rottweiler! I remember on one specific occasion, when we lived in Westville, Durban, an innocent postman walked up to my mother to give her our post and unbeknownst to him, Cindy saw red and attached herself to the postman’s Achilles heel.

The postman survived, but had learnt a very important lesson, when you do favours for someone; you’re inevitably the one who gets caught in the middle ;)

At the age of 7 we moved into our new home, and both our doggies were getting on, so my parents ‘bought me’ (read: were given) a Spaniel, whom I named Penny. Penny was a copper coloured beauty, and would sit for hours and sing to the tunes I practiced on my recorder for the year end Christmas Carols.

She was really my first experience having my own dog, although it was short lived, because when she eventually matured she dug up my father’s prized garden, and yanked our laundry off the line! My father said she was uncontrollable, and gave her back to her breeders.

I was heart broken, but there was never any arguing with my father, as children were seen and not heard (or rather children are servants and to be treated as such)!

When I was 17 I started studying at a very conservative Technikon. I stayed in a hostel on campus, and as a birthday gift, my then boyfriend bought me a kitten, my very first kitten, and I named him Toad Wart.

Toady was the feline equivalent of a dog. He would follow me wherever I went and fuelled all the rumours of me being involved with the ‘occultists’ on campus (i.e. 80% of the Fine Art students)

I was part of Toady’s life for about 5 years before he drowned and I still swear that cat had the wisest and oldest soul of any person or animal I have met.

I cried for days on end, and buried him under a huge poplar tree on the oustskirts of Rustenburg.

I’ve never been back there.

Since Toady, I’ve had the fortune of being owned by 4 more cats, Moisty, Dougy, Bilbo & Angel, the latter two still very much a part of my life. Moisty was taken by some idiot driver and Dougy went on his own path and only ever returned briefly to check in on us.

Bilbo & Angel

So, for the last 18 years I’ve always said I am a cat person, never really appreciated the affection people have for doggies, and I’m sure partly due to the fact that as a child I could never understand the bond you form with an animal you have parented.

So, what made me decide I wanted a puppy? Not really sure, maybe my desperate need to look after something and be needed and loved unconditionally, or maybe it was just destiny, but what started as a family joke (my husband hates dogs) has ended in me being the most fortunate mommy on the planet, because I get to love and be loved by this little furry ball of love: Merlin!