Marilyn tells me we've reached the half-way point of Archie's stay with us. Jamie and Nera have been away for two weeks and there are still two weeks to go. So, I should try to analyse the effect he has had on our lives and whether having a dog is a reasonable thing for a retired couple to take on board.
We hear people say all the time, "They're such good company. They give you unquestioning love. You're never lonely if you have a dog." and so on. It's all true. What they don't say is "He'll want to sleep in bed with you and he gets too hot. He wants to play when all you want to do is have an afternoon nap. He'll put hairs on all your clothes."
However, we would heartily recommend having a dog, especially if you have found yourself alone in the world. They're not called 'man's best friend' for nothing.
Archie is pretty self-contained. We had a doggie flap (I want to call it a cat flap but Archie would be offended) put in the screen door at the back so he can come and go to the grass as he pleases. That, of course, means leaving the proper back door open and, now that winter is here, that's not a great option. We've resorted to shoving him outside at regular intervals so he doesn't make a mess in the house.
Happily, there have been no problems. In the last couple of days, we've noticed he has taken to standing in front of one us, staring. Marilyn worked it out first, "He wants to go to the yard!" and so he did.
So, while we've been endeavouring to train him, he's been training us! He can tell us when he wants to eat, when he wants to have a nap and when he wants to do his business. Who's in charge here?
No comments:
Post a Comment