Our new housemate!

In between Christmas and New Year we decided we needed a new housemate. Some of you long term readers will remember that we lost our old boy Podge at the age of 16 in October 2007, and our unsuccessful attempt with a puppy in January 2008. We thought we would wait until the spring to get another dog and not rush into getting something cute and fluffy. We decided to go for a resue dog because Podge was a rescue and a great success.

Anyway the subject came up over Christmas and we decided to start looking and went to a couple of rescue places. The first one had a couple of nice looking dogs but none of the temperaments were quite right. Then at the second one we took a border collie out for a walk but decided against him because he would have just had too much energy. We tried to think of a calmer breed and wondered about labradors.

We looked on the internet and there is a charity, Labrador Rescue with a branch in the north west so we had a quick look at their website. We had to register and have them contact our old vet for a reference before we could be approved as adopters. When they said everything was fine we waited to see if a likely candidate came up on their site. The next day I spotted a female, 4 years old and we rang them straight away. We were the first to enquire and we made an appointment to go see her on Friday.

We had to drive about an hour to Chorley up the M6, but it was worth it. She was unsure of us when she was first let out of her kennel, and barked and growled a bit but we took her around the garden and she was fine. We were a little wary, not wanting to make a mistake but we just couldn't leave her behind, so she came home with us.

And we couldn't have wished for a better dog. She knows loads of commands, if you put her food down and tell her to wait she won't touch it until you let her. And she stayed downstairs at night despite the fact that we didn't put up a stairgate and she could have come up anytime. She has been off the lead and played with other dogs, and she is very cuddly. We do have to get a cyst removed from her leg next week, and we have some drops for a waxy ear, but apart from that - SUCCESS!

Okay, so you want to see her now don't you? Here she is..........Susie.