Christmas/ New Year over.............and life goes on

It’s officially over, my grandchildren are returned to their mother, the decorations are back in boxes on the top shelf of the cupboard, the house is clean and tidy and not one morsel of junk food remains in this house. Its back to porridge for breakfast home made veggie broth for lunch and fish or eggs for tea.
My next major task is stripping and redecorating the stairway. It’s not a job I’m looking forward too but; once the stairway is done, the whole house is done. Yep this is the final stage in the complete redecoration of the whole house. It’s taken me a couple of years to strip every room back to the plaster and start from scratch, but I’m almost there. The only thing that stands between me and the complete redecoration of the entire house is the stairway.  And when I’ve actually done the whole house, I’ll sit back and think, wow what an achievement.
But; before the redecorating begins there is something else I have to do. I made the decision a while ago to get myself a dog. I’ve had a canine companion for most of my life but when my last little one died about 5 years ago I decided not to get another until I retire. Well here I am retired and looking for a faithful friend. I went to the rescue kennels today to see the handsome chap at the top of the page. He is a border collie, about 3 years old and called Sammy. I saw his picture on the local dog rescue site and immediately felt drawn to him. He is a fantastic dog, he’s friendly, gets on well with kids and other dogs and like a game of fetch. He doesn’t seem to know the difference between sit and down, when you say sit………..he lies down but the learning potential is defiantly there. Apparently he was picked up by the police in a nearby town and taken to the local pound to wait for the owner to reclaim him. No owner showed up so he was passed on to dog rescue to be rehomed. I absolutely loved him but the people at dog rescue tried to steer me toward a smaller, more placid, black and white female collie called Bobby. They think Sammy could be a bit much for me to handle, they are right, he is a big strong dog and he does pull on the lead, but I really liked him as soon as I saw him and I’m sure he would learn not to be so boisterous.  Bobby is ok, a very sweet little dog but I think she is too submissive and she doesn’t seem to interact with people very well, she wasn’t interested in playing, she just wanted off the lead so she could run off on her own.  Also as soon as she was shut back in the kennel she started dancing round and round in circles, chasing her tail and barking. I think she could have some separation issues and would maybe bark and whine when alone in the house, especially as she has already been rehomed once and returned after 6 weeks because she didn’t settle. The People at the kennels seemed to blame the new home. They said the new owners hadn’t been exercising her enough and left her on her own too much. This may have been true, she was obviously over weight which makes me think she needed exercised but I’m still not sure about her. I hope to go back to the kennels tomorrow and get a better look at both of them. Apparently another couple are going to look at Sammy tomorrow and I have a feeling the rescue people want Sammy to go to this couple and not me. I feel as if Sammy is meant for me but if it doesn’t happen, maybe he’s just not the one. Maybe little Bobby is the one meant for me. Guess I’ll just have to wait and see. Today I went with the grandchildren who have been staying with me plus their mother and that turned out well because both dogs got on very well with the grandchildren.  Tomorrow I’m going with my other daughter and her Daisy Dog. What ever dog I end up with has to get on well with Daisy Dog because when I go away my dog will stay with her and when my daughter goes away Daisy dog stays with us. It’s all quite exciting. Will keep you posted.