Vignette #3 - Puppy love
In 1994, my parents and I moved to a new town. It was a lot smaller than the one I'd come from and my siblings were in their late teens and didn't move with us. I was devastated. This new situation was not conducive to my personality and I was very sad. Despite my questionable social intelligence, I LOVE having others around and my parents could sense that I was feeling down.
One morning, my Mum spotted an ad in the local newspaper for a dog going free to a good home. She made some enquiries and we went around to have a look at the dog. We ended up at the home of one of the teachers at my new school. The dog was a cavalier king charles spaniel with a gorgeous red coat. It was 6 years old but the teenage boy was not upkeeping his pet care duties and his frustrated mother decided that it should belong to someone else. Eeeeep awkward!
However, the dog ownership was transferred to me and my family but we kept the name that they had given her - Fergie. Yes, she was named in the late 80s after Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York because they shared the same hair pigmentation!
I don't remember bringing Fergie home but I do remember that the day after we got her, the three of us humans, left the house for an hour or so and left the new dog in the kitchen. On return home, I rushed into the kitchen to check that it was ok. She seemed to be! We had a long moment where I just stared at her and she stared at me, and we tried to suss each other out. It was a real dog and she was far from her old home. I felt sorry for it and gave it a big hug. She responded positively and I knew then that we were going to become very close friends.
Fergie and I adored each other. I loved rubbing her tummy for her, I loved having her on my lap and I loved watching her explode with excitement as I produced her collar for her walkies. She loved picking up my loose hand and showing me that she wanted stroking down her back. She couldn't wait for me to get home from school. One glimpse of me pulling into the drive on my bike and she would yap and run beside me down the length of the driveway to behind the house, where I would jump off my bike and she would jump into my arms. She was a wonderful family member in the absence of my real family and over time I loved her like my sister and brother.
Fergie wasn't perfect ofcourse. She ate things she wasn't supposed to eat and would run out into the mud in the backyard as soon as she'd had her bath. She would completely disappear at family picnics and we'd spend a good portion of the afternoon searching high and low for her. She wolfed down her food at frightening speed, was a bit stinky and snored very, very loudly but all that was just endearing. You couldn't get annoyed with her. Whenever I was sick or feeling down, she would sense that and run upstairs to my room and barge down the door to get to me. Once in, she would jump onto my bed (but couldn't quite make it because she wasn't just big enough) and would snuggle into me. Other times, I'd just be wandering around the house and suddenly hear a “thump thump thump” and see that Fergie was lying in the corner and wagging her tail in delight and staring adorably at me. Seriously, nobody's ever loved me as much as Fergie. That may show how lame my adult life has been or just how pure and wonderful a dog's love is. Others who have had a dog may understand what I mean. A dog's love is qualitatively different to human love. To me, it's almost at its purest.
Wikipedia tells me that the lifespan of a cavalier king charles spaniel is 9-14 years. We got Fergie when she was 6 and after another 6 years with her, she started to show signs of old age and ill health. The poor dog eventually got literally as sick as a dog and had to be taken to the vet. It was time for her to go :( On the vet's table, I saw a flea on her right paw. I hunted it in her fur and pinched it off her. I wasn't prepared for her to die with a flea! She passed away there and we buried her in the backyard.
I haven't had another dog since Fergie. I keep telling people that when I grow up I'm going to get a golden retriever. Every time I see one I am sad because it gets to live its dog life without me. Maybe I'm supposed to be grown-up now but I rent a small flat and work full-time. One day I will have an appropriate living situation for me to own a dog. Not Fergie's replacement ofcourse but I hope to love and be loved like that again.
One morning, my Mum spotted an ad in the local newspaper for a dog going free to a good home. She made some enquiries and we went around to have a look at the dog. We ended up at the home of one of the teachers at my new school. The dog was a cavalier king charles spaniel with a gorgeous red coat. It was 6 years old but the teenage boy was not upkeeping his pet care duties and his frustrated mother decided that it should belong to someone else. Eeeeep awkward!
However, the dog ownership was transferred to me and my family but we kept the name that they had given her - Fergie. Yes, she was named in the late 80s after Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York because they shared the same hair pigmentation!
I don't remember bringing Fergie home but I do remember that the day after we got her, the three of us humans, left the house for an hour or so and left the new dog in the kitchen. On return home, I rushed into the kitchen to check that it was ok. She seemed to be! We had a long moment where I just stared at her and she stared at me, and we tried to suss each other out. It was a real dog and she was far from her old home. I felt sorry for it and gave it a big hug. She responded positively and I knew then that we were going to become very close friends.
Fergie and I adored each other. I loved rubbing her tummy for her, I loved having her on my lap and I loved watching her explode with excitement as I produced her collar for her walkies. She loved picking up my loose hand and showing me that she wanted stroking down her back. She couldn't wait for me to get home from school. One glimpse of me pulling into the drive on my bike and she would yap and run beside me down the length of the driveway to behind the house, where I would jump off my bike and she would jump into my arms. She was a wonderful family member in the absence of my real family and over time I loved her like my sister and brother.
Fergie wasn't perfect ofcourse. She ate things she wasn't supposed to eat and would run out into the mud in the backyard as soon as she'd had her bath. She would completely disappear at family picnics and we'd spend a good portion of the afternoon searching high and low for her. She wolfed down her food at frightening speed, was a bit stinky and snored very, very loudly but all that was just endearing. You couldn't get annoyed with her. Whenever I was sick or feeling down, she would sense that and run upstairs to my room and barge down the door to get to me. Once in, she would jump onto my bed (but couldn't quite make it because she wasn't just big enough) and would snuggle into me. Other times, I'd just be wandering around the house and suddenly hear a “thump thump thump” and see that Fergie was lying in the corner and wagging her tail in delight and staring adorably at me. Seriously, nobody's ever loved me as much as Fergie. That may show how lame my adult life has been or just how pure and wonderful a dog's love is. Others who have had a dog may understand what I mean. A dog's love is qualitatively different to human love. To me, it's almost at its purest.
Wikipedia tells me that the lifespan of a cavalier king charles spaniel is 9-14 years. We got Fergie when she was 6 and after another 6 years with her, she started to show signs of old age and ill health. The poor dog eventually got literally as sick as a dog and had to be taken to the vet. It was time for her to go :( On the vet's table, I saw a flea on her right paw. I hunted it in her fur and pinched it off her. I wasn't prepared for her to die with a flea! She passed away there and we buried her in the backyard.
I haven't had another dog since Fergie. I keep telling people that when I grow up I'm going to get a golden retriever. Every time I see one I am sad because it gets to live its dog life without me. Maybe I'm supposed to be grown-up now but I rent a small flat and work full-time. One day I will have an appropriate living situation for me to own a dog. Not Fergie's replacement ofcourse but I hope to love and be loved like that again.