Travelling down to Lincolnshire to pick up our new puppy, trying to distract two ultra-hyper kids and keep things calm, and then, as we approach a roundabout . . .
After four years being dog-less, since the sad death of our Golden Retriever (link below), my family are about to welcome a new addition into its fold.
Whereas I’d have been happy with another Retriever, Jen preferred something smaller. But which breed? Faced with this dilemma, fickle Fate played her hand.
It just so happened that on the very night of our conversation, a programme about the nation’s top one hundred breeds was on television. We tuned in for ideas, and when a Welsh Springer Spaniel appeared on our screen my wife said, “That’s a lovely looking dog, how about one of those?”
Initially, Jen had resisted the clamour for another dog from my children and I, having been so hurt from Rydal’s passing, so within a dog’s whisker of her uttering those words I had joined a group for Welshie lovers on Facebook and enquired about an imminent litter!
Welsh Springers are not as common as English Springers, and so I knew we’d have to travel to find one. Somebody had even suggested Sweden to me, but air fare was definitely beyond our budget.
I’d not considered Scandinavia, funnily enough, but that became a moot point when I found a pregnant Welsh Springer in Wales, of all places. Who’d have thought it?
But, alas, her pups were already reserved for buyers.
A week later, another breeder, living a two and a half hour’s drive away from us in Manchester, had seen my online query and contacted me as her Springer was due to have a litter in four weeks. I confirmed that I was still interested and we got talking about why we wanted this paticular breed.
(Fate Alert drumroll please)
It only turned out that the dog that we had seen on that television show was THIS breeder’s dog. The very dog that my wife had remarked upon, and so steered us in this direction, was soon to give birth to our new puppy! What’s the odds on that?!
You’ve gotta love the magic of television.
Anyway, for reasons of space, let me give you this brief summing up:
a litter of nine was born; children were at fever pitch; we had first choice of five boys; children nearly had a breakdown with the pressure; then finally:
after my daughter, tearing her hair out and saying that the process of ruling out the four other, equally cute dogs was worse than the multiple choice questions of her SATS exams, we chose this little fella:
Originally named Uno by the breeder (we later found out that this was because he was the first born. It seems quite apt that the first born should be the first chosen). We now had to come up with our own name.
I wanted something Welsh.
“What Welsh names do you know?” asked my wife.
I came up with Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey.
“Not a chance!”
My alternative suggestion of Jenkins, after Katherine Jenkins, was similarly dismissed. So as a family we went through some Welsh names and links. I liked Arthur, you know, our once and future King and all that. But in the end we came to an agreement: Uno was now Bryn.
But you knew that, didn’t you? Having read the title of this post.
We get him tomorrow. It’s the end of our lives as we know it.
My post about the passing of Rydal:
https://cityjackdaw.wordpress.com/2015/06/25/farewell-old-friend/
Summer: when my son needs a machete to get to his football match.
Slap bang in the middle of that lot:
My daughter Millie: “Can I have an ice cream?”
My wife Jen: “I need a wee.”
Two conversations, within five minutes, with my eleven-year-old daughter Millie:
1
When seeing Amanda Holden on television.
Millie: “My friend Sienna has met Amanda Holden.”
Me: “So have I.”
Millie: “Really? You’ve met her?”
“Me: “Yes.”
Millie: “Once?”
Me: “More than once.”
Millie: “Really?”
Me: “Yes, I’ve met Sienna lots of times.”
😂😂
Followed by:
2
Feeling the gap caused by a recently lost tooth:
Millie: “You know like I’ve lost a tooth? This girl in America was on YouTube and she put a tooth under her pillow and got a hundred pounds off the Tooth Fairy.”
Me: “No she didn’t.”
“Millie: “Err yes she did!!”
Me: “I bet you she didn’t.”
Millie: “Okay-shake on it then.”
Me: “Alright. If that girl in America got a hundred pounds I’ll give you fifty quid. If she didn’t you have got to do every job I give you for a week.”
Millie: “Deal!”
We shook hands on the wager.
Me: “In America they don’t have pounds they have dollars.”
😂😂
Yes goodnight Millie! Sleep well!
Taken in the early 1880’s, this is one of the earliest images of the East End of London.
I love the way the children appear insubstantial and ghost-like, which in effect they are. Lingering echoes of lives long lost, wandering along now vanished streets.
. . . my children in our local shopping centre. Take it away, kids!
