Hi everyone! I hope you’re all doing well. Today is Wednesday, and it’s time for post number eight in the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge hosted by Long and Short Reviews. If you want to join in, you can find the topics for 2023 here, and if you’d like to know what others have had to say about today’s topic, click here.

Pets I Used to Have (or Wish I Could Have)

I love animals. I always have. I’ve always felt a strange connection to them on an empathetic level, which occasionally can be intense. I get teary at all those adverts for animal charities where there’s often a dog or cat alone and out in the rain. While watching The Snowman and The Snowdog a few weeks ago (for the millionth time), I almost flooded my living room with tears. I can’t help but feel their pain or sadness – even when they’re animated!

My first pet, one I didn’t have to share with my siblings, like the goldfish our family won at the fun fair when I was seven, was my beautiful dog, Sash. We got her when I was 11 years old when my older brother rescued her from some people who had been mistreating her.

Sash was a gorgeous German Shepherd/Jack Russel cross of (we learned later) 11 months old. She had the most beautiful, soft coat you could ever hope to pet, and her eyes had this otherworldly iridescent quality that made them look purple under certain lights. The moment I met her, I fell in love.

My brother, who, after plucking her from the grasp of those terrors, was keeping her at his flat. He called my dad to come over and see what to do with her because he had discovered he was allergic to her fur and couldn’t keep her. I went along with him.

The instant I stepped through my brother’s front door, I spotted her at the top of the stairs, shaking and hiding behind his legs.

“Be careful, she’s terrified,” my brother told us.

My dad, however, reached out the back of his hand and let her sniff him, which she did before running off.

Moments later, we were all sitting in the living room discussing what should be done. I begged my dad to let us take her home.

“Y’know your mam doesn’t like dogs. There’s no way we’re takin’ one home. Anyway, she’s too timid. She won’t even come in the room.”

Seconds after the words left his mouth, I felt some shifting movement behind me on the sofa. It was Sash. She was pressing herself into my back, and I turned gently to pet her. Though she was scared, she let me stroke the top of her head. She was shaking like a leaf though clung on, burying her head into me.

“Ah, no!” said my dad, “don’t be gettin’ attached. She’s not coming home with us!”

Suffice it to say, Sash did come home to live with us after much begging and pleading with my mum.

Very quickly, Sash became my shadow; for a long while, she would only allow my dad or me to go near her. She slept on my bed, sat beside me on the sofa and shared my food. She became my very best friend and made the dimming life of a sad and lonely 11-year-old boy bigger and brighter.

As the years rolled on, we grew up together, and she remained by my side for the next 18 years, when ultimately her time came. That’s the awful thing about our pets, isn’t it? That we outlive them? But the thing to remember – what I still hold on to now, even ten years after she left us – is that it’s a privilege that we get to know such gentle, kind and loving creatures.

So, that’s me for post 8. I’m looking forward to reading about all of your pets!

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Until next time,

George

© 2024 GLT

Categories: life, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

Tags: animals, challenge, dogs, German Shepherd, Jack Russell, pets, Wednesday, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge