Minnie meets Maisie (her half sister)

As you can see by the title I worked my magic and my hubby succumbed ? But before I jumped to Maisie’s story I will continue with Minnie’s.

Minnie’s first coat.

I have never been into all this ‘dressing up dogs thing’, I have always thought people who dressed their up their dogs were a little bit loopy. BUT I cannot believe the urge I got to get out my sewing machine and start running up a new wardrobe for Minnie! Something changed in me and I couldn’t for the life of me actually control this urge to dress up my new puppy.

It started with a coat, (sounds like a title from a song) pink! I didn’t want people mistaking her for a boy.

I went shopping for fabric, pale pink, plain pink, shocking pink, striped pink, everything pink!

Then when Minnie slept the sewing machine went mad. She had a selection of harnesses, my husband said ‘how many does she need, she can only wear one at once’ But a little girl couldn’t be seen wearing the same one two days running !

I really was turning kooky, but I loved it. Before long Minnie had a variety of clothes, harnesses, coats, beds, cushions, fleece, duvet/snuggle sack all handmade by myself ? But I did draw the line at footwear! That really was going too far……or was it? …..(only joking) My sewing machine also had an embroidery function so of course she wore her name with pride too, on everything!

My eldest son owned a little Jack Russell called Patch and he had outgrown his jumper and coat so he posted them to me for Minnie. I had explained how small she was but I don’t think he realised quite how tiny she was. It really made me laugh when I tried her ‘new’ clothes on. E.T sprung to mind.

Anyway, it was obvious we had to go and get Minnie a sister, even my hubby was exasperated at how much time he had to put aside to play with her with her toys. She demanded attention all her waking hours, besides, I had done all the sewing I could for now until she grew, I needed another project…..so off to the kennels we went again.

We didn’t take Minnie with us, I didn’t want her to think I was taking her back so my best friend and neighbour Michael took care of her while we were gone.

When we arrived we were shown the puppies (still filthy). There were two litters of seven. One litter was six weeks old, the other just four weeks old and in another pen was a little Poochon that was bigger than the rest that we were told was eight weeks old. She was with a Yorkshire terrier that was five months old that had been returned for some reason. Anyway, I was looking at the tiny puppies who were not really old enough to leave their mum and I said that to the owner, that if I had one I would go back after a couple of weeks to pick her up when she WAS old enough. But my hubby was looking at the one with the Yorkie. The Yorkie was mounting her all the time and wouldn’t leave her alone and she was trying to get away from him but had no where to go.

When I asked why she was in there with him, the owner said she was greedy and didn’t let the other puppies get to any food.

My hubby asked to have a look at her and when she was placed in my arms I was waiting for a response……nothing. She never licked me, didn’t really acknowledge me, didn’t wag her tail, nothing! I was expecting another Minnie but she was the complete opposite. I didn’t want her, I went back to the tiny ones but my hubby said ‘ I think we should have this one’ I was amazed, not only because I thought I was doing the choosing but because he seemed really sure she was ‘the one’ I didn’t argue I just thought I’d let him have his way because normally he doesn’t say a lot about things like that. So we did the deed and paid up, then put her in the pink Lego tub that Minnie had travelled in.

I realised at once that the Lego tub was a mistake, she was already too big for it. She was the complete opposite of Minnie, she yelped and cried the entire journey back! My words to my hubby were ‘ you chose her’ when he started moaning. Those words were uttered so many times during the first few months!

When we got home we decided to introduce Minnie to Maisie in the garden. Maisie didn’t react to Minnie at all, she just went straight to my flowers and started tucking in. Minnie just watched, she knew her life had changed from this moment on, you could see it in her face, she was not amused!

It was only then, while she was strutting round the garden that we realised her tail was broken at the end. It was sticking up in the air like a crochet hook, not like Minnie’s nicely curled across her back…..’you chose her’ were the words out of my mouth.