Day Zero Project: Adopt a dog

When we moved into our new home and I lost my old dog, Patch, I knew that I needed a new canine in my life. As a child, my first dog was Lady, who was the family dog; Patch had been mine though and I missed that companionship.

I started looking for a new pet in August because I'd decided that would be my treat to myself for my new job. At that time though it wasn't really practical to get a new dog so we waited and waited.

 

 We also had to wait and wait to get it in writing that we could have a dog at our little cottage. We'd have a verbal yes but as we were looking at rehoming a dog from a rescue we knew we'd need it in writing too. During this time I did a lot of research and decided that although I wanted a Labrador or lab-cross, a spaniel might be better suited to our home.

When we finally got the okay and paid our pet deposit to the landlord I started looking properly. Unfortunately living on an island makes it quite difficult to get to rehoming centres but we got lucky with a Labrador a little closer to home. At the time I'd been upset by the delay in getting confirmation that we were allowed a pet, but in the end it worked out for the best. If they'd gotten back to us quicker, we wouldn't have gotten Tara. I've been learning that sometimes waiting can be a good thing.

And now we've got our Tara-pup, who isn't such a pup any more. She definitely fits in just right and has filled the dog-shaped gap in my life. Okay, so she eats anything and wakes me up far too early in the morning to ask to go out, but there's nothing quite like being greeted home from work by a big excitable black lab, or going for a quiet early morning walk and seeing all sorts of interesting wildlife.

 

 

 I think this is one of the best Day Zero targets I've achieved.