Belle and Daisy (1)

Before the day Belle and Daisy entered my life, I never thought I could love another dog like I did my Rex. We were down with my nanny in Waterford and because it was a Sunday, we couldn’t but have a Sunday session in ‘The Ritz’, the local watering hole. Somehow eight of us fit around a table built for four. I had just picked up my glass of diet coke and took a sip as, out of the corner of my eye, I saw my aunt, Fiona, enter the pub. I did a double take as the first time I saw her she was holding something, then the second time I looked at her I noticed it was a puppy…Daisy.

As Fiona walked over to the table, the eight of us were trying to get a closer look at the little ball of wrinkles she was holding. Then the door to the pub opened again. I once again registered that it was Lorraine, Fiona’s wife but couldn’t believe that she was also holding a ball of wrinkles…. Belle.

They dragged two stools over towards the small table which was struggling to keep hold of all the drinks and, for me, it was love at first sight.

‘I was wondering why you weren’t here all day!’ my aunt Rachael said holding her hands out looking for a squeeze with one of the puppies.

‘I texted you and told you we went to Carlow,’ Fiona answered with a grin spanning from ear to ear, ‘I just didn’t tell ye what we were doing there!’ she giggled.

‘Two puppies!’ I said a little too loudly, the volume a testament to my excitement. I put my hands out to grab a squeeze of the remaining puppy from their mummies arms.

I happened to grab Daisy, who had more of a squishy face than Belle. They were puggles and were the cutest things I had ever seen…well apart from my Rex, God rest his soul.

I talked gobbledygook to the eight-week-old precious bundle of joy as she looked up at me doe eyed and shaking. I was transported to the day I brought Rex home and sympathised with the little chickens as it was their first time away from their birth mother.

As the girls were passed from one lap to another someone screamed ‘flea’s’ and they were handed back to their mummies with haste. I myself didn’t care so I kept little Daisy as she was so bored with my gobbledygook that she fell asleep.

I didn’t want to wake her from her slumber as she was obviously having a dream. Her nose had started twitching, then her right front paw. As I was so infatuated with the little thing, my diet coke stood on the table untouched since the puppies arrived and, in the distance, I could hear Robbie, the bartender, shout, ‘last call!’ Three hours had flown by, with Daisy in my arms.

Reluctantly, I gave her back to mummy so the girls could settle into their new home.

The next day, I got a phone call from mummy Lorraine, saying that other mummy Fiona, was at work and that she needed to run some errands and asked if I could help her. At first, I was convinced she wanted me to puppy sit, but she was too afraid that the girls would feel abandoned that she wanted to bring them with her and needed me to carry one of them around as she fulfilled her tasks for the day. I was only too delighted.

As I didn’t drive, mummy Lorraine picked me up from nanny’s house. My heart melted as I walked out to the car and saw the puppies, their bodies intertwined, fast asleep on the back seat. I got into the front seat and we went to our first stop, the stationary shop. This was a place that not only sold stationary, but was more like a ‘need anything?’ shop. I carried Belle in my arms as mummy Lorraine carried Daisy.

We must have been stopped by about fifty people who passed infatuated by the puppies. The puppies, well Belle anyway, weren’t bothered as they were fast asleep.

Belle, her head nestled softly in the crook of one arm, her bum in the other, as I walked with my arms crossed, seemed to be happy out. She stirred a couple of times, looked around, and went back to sleep. The girls didn’t have their vaccinations at the time so they had to be carried about the place. In the stationary shop, which was on three floors, I lost mummy Lorraine a couple of times, finally deciding that looking for her was redundant so I leaned against the counter at the front of the shop waiting for her to find me.

After the stationary shop was the pound shop, where I picked up some dog toys for the newest members of the family. Belle, awake and alert, was my guide as to what type of toys they wanted. I held up a chicken, Belles face moved away from it, so I put it back. I held up a squeaky hamburger and she seemed to like it, so that was a yes. I did this a few times with a few different toys, the basket growing ever fuller. Then I went into the cuddly toy section. She liked one of the bears so much that she grasped its foot with her teeth and I put it under her head in my arms. Then I showed her a stuffed turtle, but she was too fascinated with the bear to sample any more toys.

I met mummy Lorraine at the till, her face surprised as to what I had in the basket, but I explained how Belle had approved of them all. It was some feat trying to remove the teddy she had claimed to scan it into the cash register. When I took the bear away, she whimpered one of the softest whimpers I had ever heard that I almost cried. The man at the till ‘aaahhed’ in unison with myself and mummy Lorraine. ‘There you go little one!’ he said returning the bear to Belle who immediately settled when I put the him under her head.

As it turned out, Belle grew to love her teddy bears, she collected them, bringing one to bed with her every night. They were called her ‘babies’, and I am proud to say that I bought her the first one.

After all the errands were completed, my arms dead from lugging Belle around all day, we went home and played with the puppies who seemed to get a second wind once the toys were introduced. It wasn’t long before mummy Fiona arrived home, her two little puggles bounding towards her, Belle dragging the teddy that was almost as big as her by the foot. They asked me to stay for dinner but I declined because this was the first time they were altogether as a family of four and they didn’t need a fifth wheel tagging along.

After mummy Lorraine and I told mummy Fiona all about our little expedition, I got a lift back to my nanny’s where my nanny and mom were about to get my nanny’s favourite dinner, a chipper.

‘Did you have a nice time love?’ my mother asked me as we ate our food.

I just nodded and remembered back to the first day I had spent with poor old Rex. A tear fell from my eye and I smiled, grateful that I got to be in the lives of Belle and Daisy.