"Oh dear," thought Snuffy sadly. "I can't help, I'm afraid, but wait... oh, yes I've got it! I'll call the fire brigade."

I cant believe it has been almost a month since I posted anything. The build up to the election was really getting on my nerves so I removed social media off my phone for most of that time and because of it I didn't really fancy writing. Add that to some new responsibilities I have around the house and its no wonder I have been quiet. Its not the first time I've gone this long without posting but other times it has been utter laziness. This time though my loafing has a face... and a really cute one at that.

Since we have been walking the dogs at our local dogs home, Mrs M and at the boys have gone into full on 'dog mode'. I made my feelings clear early on that I really didn't want a dog. As usual though my tiny voice went unheard and the hunt for 'the right' dog for 'us' began. Mrs M finally thought she had found the right dog through a Bulldog charity and it seemed as though Alma the bulldog would be finding a new home with us. The home visit went fine but we found out that she would most likely need operations due to medical conditions and we didn't feel that would be fair on the boys seeing how excited they were about getting a dog.

On the day of the home visit a very disheartened Mrs M informed me that there was a local family who had pug puppies, the mouse like comments of "I don't want a dog", "I DONT WANT A DOG!"  of course continued to go unheard and Mrs M said that she had already spoken to the 'pug lady' and could we go and see them. Push over Pauly caved (as I always do) and we were straight in the car to look at puppies. I wasn't really prepared for the puppy ambush when we sat on the floor in their lounge and we were bombarded with excitable pups. There was a faint thought of 'Smithers release the hounds' in my head as 5 fun loving pugs started climbing all over us. There was only one of the 5 left and of course that was the one that found Opeie, curled up on his lap and fell asleep. Mrs M looked across and said "what do you think?" It was at that point that I realised the trap I had fallen into, there was no saying no to that.

We visited our new family member every week for 4 weeks before we could take her home, sometimes spending 3 hours there chatting to the breeders. Opeie, Seth and Mrs M were smitten and although I still didn't want a dog I couldn't help but fall for that cute squashed up little face. 

At this point its probably important to point out why I dont didn't want a dog. I'm not some sort of animal hater or weird dog Grinch, I'm just not a fan of pet ownership. It is such a HUGE responsibility and I'm not sure anyone in the house has realised quite how much yet. I wasn't a fan of getting a cat but they are low maintenance and Polly is not interested in our attention at all, if anything she is more like a lodger than anything else. Dogs though take up a lot of time, which I have found out to the full extent over the last 3 weeks because I have done none of the things that I needed to have done during the evenings. The thing that I couldn't get across from the get go was that the HUGE responsibility is so much bigger if you didn't want the pet in the first place and when Mrs M is working away, that is all on me (maybe I am a dog Grinch).

As always though I have adapted to the change in our home life like I always do, no matter what is thrown at me and I've got to say despite my reservations its nice to see everyone in the house so happy. Someone once told me that getting a puppy is like having a baby but I would take 10 babies over the broken sleep Ive had recently. I was so exhausted a few nights back that I stood in the garden at 4am half asleep (on wee patrol) and it wasn't until I went to walk back into the house that I realised that my underwear was wide open and I was hanging out (I just hope our neighbours aren't up at that time of the morning).

 So this is life now, cleaning up wee, broken sleep and minimal time to do the things that I want of an evening. In its place though is an adorable little squashed up face to wake up to every morning who likes to eat my beard and chew on my stretched ear lobes. I may have been converted... but don't tell anyone here I don't want to lose my Grinch like status.

Welcome to the family Snuffy.