Introducing Lady…Our New Dog.

If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you’ll know by now that I have a penchant for melodrama. So when I say that picking up Lady today was like bringing a new baby home from the hospital, you’ll know what I mean. I get a bit emotional.

We were all so excited about meeting Lady although I have to admit that I still had a few murmuring concerns. Were we doing the right thing? Taking a new dog sight unseen was certainly a risk, especially when she needed to get on with Bilbo, our 8 year old Border Collie. At the same time, as crazy as it seemed, the decision felt so right and as my Mum would say: “meant to be”.

Just to recap…Lady is a 2 year old Border Collie Collie x Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.From the photo we’d seen, she looked like a small BC with a touch of the Spaniel thrown in. While she looked cute in the photo, I wasn’t buying her so much for her looks but for the mix of breeds.  We love Border Collies but felt that our next dog needed to be smaller. Geoff had mentioned getting a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and I thought a combination of the two would be just perfect but thought my chances of ever finding one would be slim.

However, I had looked up both breeds on Gumtree, an online classifieds site, and suddenly ads of puppies for sale started flashing at me almost 24/7. You could just imagine the incredible temptation as puppy after puppy popped up s all imploring me to take them home with those irresistible puppy dog eyes. As much as I knew clicking on the photos was only going to make things worse driving Gumtree into an obscene frenzy, I couldn’t resist. That was how we found Lady. She flashed up on Gumtree…our dream dog turned real.  That was a few weeks ago now. Lady comes from Tenterfield in North-Western NSW which could be a couple of countries away if you were in Europe so we had to wait for her to come down to pick her up. Today, was finally the day.

Time is a traveler
Tenterfield saddler
Turn your head
Right again Jackaroo
Think I see kangaroo up ahead

Peter Allen:Tenterfield Saddler.

Well, Lady is our “Tenterfield Traveller”. It’s been a long journey for her to reach us. We were picking her up from McDonald’s in Heatherbrae. This was about 1 3/4 hours drive away so I took the kids out of school and turned it into a family excursion. After picking up Lady, I was planning to spend the afternoon in historic Morpeth near Maitland where my Great Great Grandmother, Charlotte Merritt was born in 1864.

The plan all sounded good but then it needed to be executed. As we all know only too well, when the rubber hits the road, it can fly off in all directions causing all sorts of collateral damage. My first hurdle was the long drive. I am not the most confident driver. I get lost too easily and I also get fatigued. Moreover, after all the stops we had on the way to the snow, I thought we’d better allow plenty of extra time for contingencies.

However, the drive was very easy and straight-forward. This meant that we arrived 90 minutes early… just in time to order pancakes and hash browns…a dreadfully unhealthy second start to the day but I rare treat.

Our son waves while waiting at McDonald’s to pick up Lady.

Of course, arriving early only served to heighten our anticipation. I was so excited. Sitting on the edge of my seat excited. I was about to burst. Where was she? Lady! Lady!

Then, all was revealed.

If you are old, or should I say “mature” enough to remember a dating show called Perfect Match starring host Greg Evans and his match-making computer robot Dexter which was popular back in the 80s, you’ll remember that moment. After the contestant had made their choice, the wall would slide back to reveal their dream date or perfect match. For better or worse, it was their moment of truth.

Finally, we were heading out to the car park to meet Lady and her Dad.

Our very first photo of Lady with her Dad on the left showing the initial madness of dogs on leads and kids in a car park.

Wow! Good decision. Great decision. Lady was not only gorgeous with beautifully soft silky fur, she is incredibly affectionate and friendly. Her Dad was gorgeous too. Given than Lady is black with just a touch of white on her chest and back paws, I’d assumed that Dad would be black and white but instead he turned out to be the ruby colouring and so lusciously golden. The funny thing is that you assume that Dad would be bigger than his daughter but as you can see from the photo, Lady was twice his size. Despite these differences, you can still see quite a lot of Dad in her facial features and she has his really soft Cavalier fur. She’s so beautiful to touch.

I had wondered how Lady would go leaving her family as she was not only leaving her human family but also her dog family but after a bit of a look behind her and needing to lift her into the car, she’s been fine. That doesn’t mean she’s forgotten. She wouldn’t know that this supposed “holiday” is permanent yet.

We have all fallen in love with Lady. Indeed, she is sleeping on my lap while I’m writing this post and seems perfectly comfortable. She seems quite used to being a Laptop Dog.

Next stop: Morpeth. It’s a significant detour and definitely not on our way home but I don’t get up this way very often and I love the place.

xx Rowena

Sources
Read more at http://www.songlyrics.com/peter-allen/tenterfield-saddler-lyrics/#czvYmwdirLfbFSzw.99