Two weeks ago we became proud owners of a golden puppy through Labrador Rescue in Cape Town.
Didi, as we’ve named her, lived in the suburbs and her owner was engagingly honest: she digs up the garden, she isn’t house-trained because she’s never lived indoors and she was expelled from puppy class because she was such a disruptive presence. Hmm.
Husband very attached to his garden so after much discussion we decided to live with some holes but we rolled up our beautiful Chinese silk carpets and headed off to collect Didi – or Delightful Didi as we now call her. At seven months she’s still very much a puppy and quite a handful but has fitted into our home so easily.
Not once has she messed in the house, she loves being out on walks and hassles our aged golden lab only a few times a day. Not one hole in the garden. So many people get a puppy when they have children – and usually a Labrador because everyone says labs are perfect with children.
Yes they are but they still need huge amounts of attention, love, training and time. Puppies nip, they jump, they shove – they are puppies after all! We’ve never had kids and I can assure you if I had I would not have a puppy if the kids were young. Just too much work.
Even with two adults in the house we’ve hired a dog walker for those days where we can’t exercise her enough – and hired a dog trainer to make sure we’re on the right track – and she’s with us all the time when we’re home. Locking her out just makes things so much worse. But if you have the time and the energy they’re worth every second of love, loyalty and affection.
Although I had doubts when I was stretched out on the couch watching TV and a very wet, gobby ball was shoved against my cheek the other night. Our days of peace are over for now.
From the 7th floor:
Things were tense on our floor this week. We’d lined up Advocate Barbie’s mom to speak exclusively straight after sentencing. But things took a lot longer at the court than anticipated. And of course they broke for lunch. Then Barbie was hauled off to jail and her mother collapsed, unable to speak to our journalist.
The first four pages in our mag were empty and waiting, we were waiting, the clock was ticking. We had no other option for a strong lead story. They weren’t answering their cellphones. Our journalist and photographer were pacing.
At the 11th hour we got our time with Cezanne Visser’s mother. Exhausted, drained and emotional she told us her story. We held the presses, we sent the cover to print seven hours later than usual and the staff signed off the final pages well after midnight.
But we did it – we got the story that everyone wants to read. Nadia, our news editor, aged visibly during the course of the day. She was close to tears, then overjoyed, as she announced the time and place we could finally do the interview. Our plan B could be shelved.