Diary of a (Rescue) Dog Mum

Entry 1 – Deciding to adopt a rescue dog.

As a thirty-something woman with no children, I’m certainly not an anomaly. Record numbers of women are reaching the age of thirty and being child-free, as a recent report from the Office of National Statistics says. I hadn’t ever wanted children, instead, I threw myself into my career, travelling the world, and enjoying spending my money on Michelin-starred dinners and renovating my Victorian townhouse. (A lockdown purchase.)  But it was during lockdown, and spending this time in our new house, I recognised that something was missing.  I didn’t have a pang for the pitter-patter of tiny feet, well not human ones anyway. I really wanted a dog.

Everyone says that a dog makes a house a home, and honestly, never has a truer word been said. My partner didn’t really want a dog, he has 4 kids (yep 4!) from a previous relationship, so was enjoying it just being the two of us, but I eventually convinced him. The prices for pups in lockdown was ridiculous, having always had English Bull Terriers and knowing the breed well, I had initially pined for a little bully pup. But with a price tag of £3k and our chimney having just caved in, D wasn’t having any of it.  “Let’s get a rescue”, he said. I willingly agreed. I sat for nights, scrolling through instagram feeds, eyes welling up with the harrowing images of pups to old dogs needing homes. I filled in numerous applications, the Dogs Trust, Bull Terrier Rescue, Battersea, RSPCA, the list goes on…. EVERYONE was getting dogs in lockdown. We didn’t get a look in. I must’ve filled in 30 applications, and not one even bothered replying. Apart from Battersea, who added us to a waiting list. (We never did hear back, we must still be on it).

I was about to give up when a friend of mine who I worked at the Guardian with, had put a pic of a puppy up on insta and I immediately messaged her to get the downlow, she’d adopted Purdy from Romania. A charity called Lucky’s Legacy Rescue had organised it all and she had just got off the Happy Bus and was loving her new home in North London.  Clare told me how great the process had been and recommended them highly. I checked out their instagram grid and couldn’t believe so many gorgeous pups didn’t have homes. I immediately sponsored and named Ziggy, a small black and white puppy that had been taken in along with its Mum and sister. And from then on I was hooked, following their page, pouring over the gorgeous little souls looking for a forever home, I applied.

We got a response really quickly and had a telephone interview for the first stage. I got through no sweat, but then the next stage had to be on camera and D would need to be present too. This worried me a bit as he wasn’t as ‘into it’ as me, but honestly, he was a dream. The questions were really tough, I got all upset and red and agitated but D kept super calm and took it all in his stride. They asked questions about how we would deal with certain situations and behaviours, as well as checking we’d read up on Lucky’s itself. The final part was a video tour of our home, this was all fine, or so we thought. Being very lucky to have a garden in our zone 2 house, I thought this was the easy part, but no. The adoption committee thought that our 7 foot high walls surrounding the garden would be easy for a Rommie to breach so they wouldn’t approve us until Darren made them higher. Dutifully he added fencing to the top of the walls all round, there was no way anything was getting in or out of that now. We were approved.

The adoption team listened carefully to our answers and information about our lifestyle, and then matched us with suitable pups. They asked if we had a preference but we said we would trust their recommendation. We got a whatsapp telling us we’d been matched with Angel, and she’d be on the happy bus in a matter of weeks.

I was immediately smitten, she had been one the pups I’d been looking at on the instagram feed, she was all chunky and had gorgeous little cream socks and baked bean eyebrows.  We started brainstorming names and it was D who came up with Truffle, it was perfect, just like her.

I hit the shops, big time. My pup was spoiled before she even arrived. But I’ll save that for next time.

Sx

Stacey-Rebekka Karlsson is the Founder & MD of Goho, a boutique PR, Marketing & Events Agency. As well as being a full time Dog Mum, Stacey also enjoys baking, munching runny cheese, boxing and walks in the park. Truffle on the other hand enjoys barking, munching almost everything, playing fetch and zoomies in the park. They live in sunny South-East London and are on a mission to make all pubs and restaurants allow dogs.