Wednesday 6 April 2011

Sweety


This week we have become the slightly hesitant owners of Sweety.

She is a ten year old french labrador retriever cross. Not a cross labrador retriever at all, bless her. She is a Sweety.

We have never had a dog in the family before and as is our way with decisions, have talked about having a dog in a general way for years and then done an 'oh go on then'. She was advertised on a website that hopes to join up dogs needing new homes with people needing new dogs. We have gone 'aaaah' at various puppies with soulful eyes but then decided that for a first effort we would be better off with a dog that knew what it was doing.

Sweety has been in a french home for ten years. Obviously well trained and eager to please. Then, apparently, one of the adults died, family downsized and dog put in the pound. From there she was rescued by Melissa who takes on two at a time that aren't obviously going to be rehomed from a viewing in the pound, and has them in a sort of half way house while she discovers what sort of personality they have and what they will need from their new home.

After a bit of tooing and froing with emails, we decided to go and meet Melissa and Sweety. This was talked about as coming to see Sweety to see if she was what we wanted but the assumption from the start was that we would take her with us. We went for a walk and had lunch with lots of chat and advice and then were sent off home with Sweety, a bag of food and a list of instructions. (And an email address and telephone number.)

Huge feeling of 'what have we done' and responsibility.

By the time we got home, we were all exhausted although she was as good as she could be in the car. But Sweety slept through the night and so far so good.

5 comments:

  1. Hi Rosie
    We've been like that for years, too...do we, don't we? We decidedthat maybe we can when we live in France full-time, but it would have to be a pet that is likely to outlive us because we probably wouldn't cope with losing anything close to us.

    Sounds like you've done good! Reading between the lines, it seems you are already endeared to Sweety.

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  2. Awww, Rosie, what a good deed you've done. We're not dog people but cat, but my niece and her fiance have just been matched with a rescue dog and are very happy. Sadly my sister at the other end of the UK (the one who was ill) has decided she can no longer care properly for her dog and has arranged to rehome her. Hopefully Sally will find her own Rosie soon.

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  3. Perpetua we've got a cat already - whose nose is very put out by the whole thing. Sweety went beserk when she saw him through the window. This from a dog that 'tolerates cats'. I think they are going to have to manage a separate existence for some time.

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  4. We've had several 'dumped' dogs over the years and even in the cases where there was a proper handover, it was clear that all had not been revealed...probably because all was not known!

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  5. Good for you Rosie, I'm sure things will work out fine, and you'll enjoy the extra company. Plus dog's are great for talking total rubbish to as they never contradict you ;-)

    x

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