This is Bailie. My future mother and father in law just adopted him this week. Someone abandoned him too. He is a real sweetheart but he's got a lot of problems. The dog behaviourist who consulted us before Bailie came home says it's because his owner abandoned him when he was young. It's okay - we're working on it. In fact, he's not the first rescue dog my future in laws have rescued. Before Bailie they had taken in another rescue dog called Dylan. Dylan was an integral part of the family unit, always offering up a cuddle or escorting you around the house in the most gentlemanly fashion. Both dogs, having been abandoned by their previous owners, came with their own problems from having been abandoned. Dylan would howl sometimes, staring out the window as if waiting for someone. If he heard certain soap opera theme tunes he would wail out a sad cry. We never knew anything about his previous owners but we often think these things set him off because they reminded him of his past. My future mother and father in law noted that his ears pricked up and he looked around if anyone ever said the name 'Andrew'. His origins will forever remain a mystery to us as he was handed off to a shelter with no back-story. Bailie, it seems, is a lot happier. He's just a puppy but, as a Spaniel x Beagle cross he got a bit bigger and more boisterous than his previous owner had bargained for. Once he was 'too big' and harder to handle, he was given up. Being part spaniel, his owner found him too energetic and too much to handle. Rather than dealing with his behaviour with training and showing patience, it's just easier to get rid of him, right? He is now living with a lot of anxiety. When someone so much as speaks to him he pees himself unexpectedly and without warning. He can't help it. He also cannot be left alone. He becomes distressed and starts to chew on things and tear them apart. To some, this may not sound like the ideal dog. If Shona Sibary had a dog like this she would have rehomed him pretty quickly by the sound of it. It doesn't seem to have occured to her that dogs, like people, do well with a bit of subtle training. If she's so happy to fork out for her pooch-purchasing habit, why did she not throw some money on a canine behaviourist and dog training classes? Thankfully he came to owners that realised he is a living being, not just something there to be cute and entertain us. Like all living things he has a personality as complex as our own. He wants love and attention and a stable home. Dogs don't understand why they've been abandoned. No one can explain to them why they weren't good enough. Bailie has been adopted by a family that will see his behaviour and offer him patience. He has been taken in by a family that will put in the time to train him and help him work through his problems with as much love and affection as we can possibly give. Sometimes we have to form an orderly queue to do so. My point is that dogs are living things and not some hot commodity. They form an attachment to you and I have seen first hand the heartbreak they endure at being left behind. They cannot comprehend why you left them and it stays with them for life. Shona's dogs probably thought more of her than she did of them. Sure, Shona says that her dogs all have happy homes now (although details of her stories differ), but those dogs probably still wonder why their original family let them go so easily. Dogs, like wine, are good at any age. Last year my beloved pup, Hamish, passed away. I was a child when my parents brought him home and he lived with us until he was old. Two days before my birthday he passed away. I loved him just as much as an old mutt as I did when he was a puppy. Dogs, they say, are man's best friend and I've always found them to astound me with their depth of understanding. Hamish would always seem to sense when I was having a bad day and he would come and sit by my side as if to reassure me. In his old age he was very sick and had lots of health problems but I did not turn my back. I took care of him because that's what friends do. I miss him all the time. I would urge anyone with a heart big enough to adopt an animal from a shelter to give dogs like Shona's a second chance at a forever home with a good, loving family. Many shelters will often accept donations and volunteers to help socialise the dogs in their care. They will never, ever understand why you left them and why they weren't good enough. Now someone hand that woman a Tamagotchi and be done with it...
Saturday 29 August 2015
Shona Sibary, I Have Someone You Should Meet...
Animal lovers across the internet are fuming over a Daily Mail news story about Shona Sibary, a woman who claims she buys puppies and gets rid of them when they are no longer 'cute' and easy to care for. Sibary claims that she spends huge amounts of money to splash out on pet accessories, veterinary operations and the dogs themselves. Some have offered compassion and understanding to this woman saying that the problem is probably rooted in some sort of emotional difficulty. Others have been less forgiving. Being dubbed the new Katie Hopkins/Samantha Brick, she has already faced a huge backlash on Twitter. Dog rescue groups and charities like Dog's Trust have written to her offering to show her the impact of abandonment on dogs...
Let me introduce you to someone.
Monday 24 August 2015
Who? Where? YOU? THERE?
I'm forever happy to see people all over the world stopping by to read my humble little blog that I started with no major plans for it. Here I am many months later and still raking in views from all over the world.Here is a list of the countries that have stopped by my blog so far. Thank you for reading and making me feel awesome on a daily basis. Don't forget that you're awesome too:
Isle of Man
Latvia
Côte d’Ivoire
Iraq
Jamaica
Ghana
Guyana
Luxembourg
Brunei
Guernsey
Bangladesh
Lithuania
Nigeria
Bahrain
Mauritius
United Arab Emirates
Sri Lanka
Zimbabwe
Pakistan
Macedonia [FYROM]
Singapore
Israel
Colombia
Thailand
Qatar
Nepal
South Africa
Trinidad and Tobago
Georgia
Peru
Moldova
Taiwan
Mongolia
Estonia
Kuwait
Croatia
Slovenia
Saudi Arabia
Portugal
Hungary
Norway
Tunisia
Belarus
Morocco
Poland
Azerbaijan
United States
Germany
South Korea
Brazil
India
Indonesia
Finland
Argentina
Puerto Rico
Bulgaria
Greece
Cambodia
Sweden
Mexico
Turkey
Romania
Serbia
Philippines
Japan
Canada
Netherlands
Spain
Venezuela
Chile
Switzerland
Italy
Ireland
Egypt
France
Malta
China
Hong Kong (as special administrative region of the People's Republic of China)
Vietnam
Malaysia
Czech Republic
Russia
Ukraine
Australia
New Zealand
Belgium
Denmark
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Argentina
Monday 17 August 2015
New Years Resolutions 2015: A Review
Earlier this year I wrote up a few New Years Resolutions for 2015. I have decided to re-visit those resolutions to see how I've done so that I can endeavour to complete everything on the list for a successful year. Let's review....
Learn to say YES.
Everyone always seems to regret not taking risks. In hindsight we see they may have lead to something good. I feel that I need to learn to say yes and be more pro-active. I've lost out to many job opportunities because I forgot to respond to them by just thinking 'Eh, I will keep the window open in my browser and get to it later,' but when later comes, the position has been filled. Like in the film "Yes Man" I want to learn to say yes and grab opportunities when I see them. This could mean going on more nights out or taking up extra shifts or anything that could benefit me somehow.
How have I done with this?
I've tried to be a little bit more spontaneous. I go out more upon invitation, I've tried to pursue opportunities. I could be better though. Now we're in August so I have a few more months to say 'yes' a lot more.
Procrastinate less, do more.
This really follows on from the last one. I probably lost hundreds of hours to procrastination in 2014. All those times I went to sit down and write a novel and ended up on Tumblr or Pinterest or YouTube. I have so many things that I want to achieve and I will only do this if I kick my procrastinating ways. I need to focus on my work this year because I feel that this year could be a big one for me.
Well it's been tough. I work a lot. I mean a LOT. You'll see why when we get to the final point. I've not had much time to do anything so I have procrastinated less and have therefore become so much more organised with my time. I would say I've procrastinated a lot less and have really learned a lot about how to manage myself and to organise my time well.
Write a thing.
I want to write a thing. Any thing. A book thing. A script thing. An anthology thing. Anything. I want it done by the end of 2015.
Again, I have tried. I spectacularly missed out on NaNoWriMo even though I really wanted to take part. I work two jobs full time so there's not much time to write. I am about 27,000 words into a project and I'm hoping to have more time but it is hard when you work as much and as often as I do.
Travel
I want to at least go somewhere outside of England. Just once. I meant to last year but work and personal restraints held me back. Hopefully, this year will be the year...
I haven't left the UK so far this year. I do, however, have plans to make one or two trips later in the year when winter rolls around. I'm hoping to do a mini-break with my family in Berlin and hoping to do a trip with my partner to Italy or France. Again, work has been a priority this year
Make a career change
I have been in my current job for over a year now and I can safely say that, although I've enjoyed some aspects of my time here, it's not the job I was aiming for when I left university. Now it is time to find the job I want, the job I'm qualified to do. This may mean working at my current job as well as a new job and doing both simultaneously. This may be one big career move altogether. I've not decided yet but let's see what the New Year brings...
This is the one I have already succeeded in pretty hard. The job I mentioned in the previous paragraph is one I've been working at for a year and a half now, maybe more, and I am still there. I was up for a promotion there at my old job. A few days before the promotion interview I was offered a job elsewhere. This job offer was a salaried position. Obviously I took the job. I had my own desk, a good salary, won many of the incentives and competitions. However the job wasn't working for me so I resigned. It was scary - I'd never written a letter of resignation before. I was scared but I knew I had to resign. I was working an hour away from where I live and worked long hours - there was no way I was going to ever get enough time to make a job interview closer to home when I worked so far away. I resigned and applied to several jobs. I actually received quite a high level of positive response. Quite a few jobs wanted to arrange an interview or discuss the role further. I landed an interview a day or so after leaving my old office job and, within seven days of my resignation/leaving, I landed a new job. This new job is closer to home so no long commute! The new job is an area of interest to me with excellent career progression and I could not be happier.
Having reviewed everything I think I've done well. I'm on track. I just need a holiday and some time to write and it'll all be grand. Fingers crossed...
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