The house of no

My happy house where once no one shouted, the cats lounged around out in the open and all our stuff was just layed out how it should be, is no longer the house of yes.

About a month ago my friend L and I were on our way back to my house after a walk when we spotted 2 puppies eating garbage around a bin in my neighbourhood.

We stopped and watched them for awhile and then went on.

Most days the next week I would stop by and feed them when I went past but then one day there was only one puppy left and she was very sad and depressed.

The next night I stopped by to feed her again and she would barely get excited and she wouldn't eat the food I put down.

My heart broke.

I went home and talked to Cush about it. We both love dogs (and cats!) and I've been wanting a dog for ages.

We both decided that yes, we would take the puppy.

We went out and bought some food and bowls and stopped by to pick her up on our way back home. But of course like any dog born on the street she didn't know what the car was, and her energy was lacking.

So I carried her home while Cush drove beside us.

As it so happened my parents were visiting and in bed when all this went down so they didn't know until the next morning. They were a bit surprised!

We took her to the vet and got a clean bill of health so that was good.

Then we had to name her. I wanted to name her after a good friend of mine who recently left the country to go back home for bigger and better things but someone told me that would be creepy.

So we decided to call her well...I'm not going to tell you because that's how I do things but on my blog she will be called Jellybean.

Jellybean is a sweetheart. She loves to cuddle and is interested in everything that's living. She loves all the housemaids and labourers in my neighbourhood to the point where she lays down in the road and refuses to move just so she can keep looking at them.

She loves children so much that I literally have to hold her back from jumping on them.

She loves ants and bees and flys.

She loves all the cats...but maybe she hates the cats...I don't know. I do know that McFluffin and Small Fry don't want to know her.

It's heartbreaking. Jellybean has quite a few battle scars on her nose and one frighteningly close to her eye.

I'm just trying to take it like the cats are teaching Jellybean about boundaries, and hopefully she doesn't lose an eye in the process.

I feel bad for the cats, Small Fry especially. She and I are usually inseperable when I'm home. If I'm sitting on the couch, she's on my lap. If I go to the loo, she comes along with me. If I go outside to garden, she's sitting on the patio table. If I'm cooking, she's sleeping on the kitchen floor or on top of the kitchen cabinets. And now, well I have to keep everyone seperate.

Jellybean and I have the livingroom, kitchen and patio and the cats have the 2 bedrooms, Cush's office, the other entertainment room and the servants room where we keep a freezer and their litter boxes.

Jellybean and I spend our days puttering around the house, running downstairs to "do our business" every 1-2 hours, sleeping (not me, I do research on the internet about dogs or run errands), training, walking and getting into trouble.

She's eaten a garden hose, the satellite remote, my new phone that I got for Christmas, Cush's speaker cables from his office, our friend's glasses and she's eaten from the litter box :( so gross!

So anyway, yeah we have a lot to work on. Our vet thinks she was about 3 and a half months old when we got her, give or take a few weeks, so for a (un)domesticated pet we're a bit behind in training and socialising.

Housebreaking has been really challenging. Everything I've read on the internet says that when your dog needs to "go" it will start sniffing the floor and walking in circles...Jellybean doesn't do that. Not even when we go outside to "go" or on a walk. We'll be walking along and then all of a sudden she'll drop her back end down...like out of no where.

So now I'm just trying to housebreak through time schedualing. We win a lot but we still lose a few.

Walking her is a challange, well more of a full body workout. I struggle to make her heel while she starts and stops, jolts, swerves, pulls and pushes me all over the place. I meanwhile attempt to keep us looking like I'm in charge, while I try to be in charge. My arms are going to be killer in no time!

And all the people on the street don't help either to be honest.

Last week I took Jellybean out to do her business and there were neighbourhood cats everywhere meowing and she was distracted. Finally all the cats went away but a man who was sitting in his car across the street started jingling his keys at her. Then she was distracted again.

People make kissy noises at us out their car windows, children bark at her and people just want to talk to me.

It's the strangest thing, like what? I have a dog and that means I want to talk to everyone?

Not to be rude but not really actually. I don't want to be accessable. I don't mind the housemaids having a chat, but I do not like the groups of men (young and old) who try and start conversations. Just fuck off. I just want to walk my dog in as much peace as possible.

I'm horrible, but that's how I feel.

So now it's like my vocabulary, which is usually quite extensive, has been reduced to "no", "off", "come", "outside", "sit", "do your business" and "good girl". Seriously that's all I say all day long.

And I feel bad. Here I have taken a wild animal, stuck a leash on her and dragged her around the neighbourhood. I say what she can eat and when, which means that I have to pull everything from chicken and fish bones to tea bags and kleenex out of her mouth when we walk. I say where she can do her business and when, I say what behaviours she can have...how awful is that?

I feel like a meanie. Yes I know I'm giving her a long and healthy life filled with people (and maybe someday cats) that will love her but I feel like a jerk!