It’s a dog’s life

It’s about time I told you the story of how we came to  have a dog called Oscar. You see, on Monday Oscar turns seven, so I thought we’d celebrate with his story (and a few tasty dog biscuits).

Oscar in 2007 when we first met him

Let’s turn the clock back two and a half years ago…

As I work from home quite a lot, I had answered an ad to be a dog sitter for a dog you all know (Frodo), so that he wouldn’t be at home all alone while his owners worked. Frodo comes from local dog breeders, who are famous for their beautifully-coloured working golden retrievers. The breeders had five or six dogs at that time, one of them being Frodo’s dad, Oscar. (Yes – our Oscar!)

Oscar was one of their stud dogs and his puppies were always booked up long in advance because people just fell in love with his sweet and generous nature. Unfortunately, he didn’t like living in a big flock of dogs and was getting more and more stressed.

Frodo’s owners brought him home, but as Oscar was very worried and followed them around all the time – he never seemed to be able to relax – they decided not to add him to their family.

That’s when they suggested that I go over to the breeders to meet him.

So, I did.

Although only a couple of weeks before, we had decided as a family not to get a dog until the kids were old enough to come home from school by themselves and walk the dog.

I didn’t tell Sir Pe, but took the kids out to the breeders. They were lovely as were all their dogs, especially a handsome 4.5-year-old called Oscar. I decided to bring him home for the weekend to see if he really was as sweet as everyone said he was.

On returning home, I did what any sane parent would have done: I made the kids go in first with the dog and explain to Sir Pe that he was spending the weekend with us! When Sir Pe wanted to take Oscar back at the end of the weekend, we all burst out crying.

And that’s  how we ended up with one of the kindest, gentlest and most patient dogs you’re ever likely to meet.

Big thanks to Bozo over at Pet Pride for featuring Oscar this week to celebrate his birthday!