Our dog and my shoes

Our family has a dog. He is 15 months old now. I am not going to lie to you, it has been the hardest thing I have found having a dog.

The potty training, dog training, walking everyday, working him out, grooming it has been overwhelming at times. The boys and Andy love him. I can totally see the benefits of having a dog everyday on all of their faces. The family walks. The laughter he regularly brings the boys. The love and devotion he gives them. It is all very endearing.

My main reason for finding it hard is because he is not another child. I would love another child so have found it emotional. But I will leave it there.

I guess he has made all of our lives colourful in one way or another.

Are you a dog person? Do you have dogs? Ours is a blue merle collie cross with a lab. I have realised that he loves attention and needs it Every. Where. We. Go. I have realised that once he gets this attention off a dog, cat, any person that will have him, he is chill.

At the end of last summer my husband and I went out for an hour leaving the doggo at home. I had scanned the downstairs area to make sure chewable things where out of the way, doors shut so no accidents and off we went.

My husband had suggested we get a dog bed. I had tried to make several homemade dog beds that were not up to the mark. They were either chewed, trashed or not comfortable enough.

I wasn’t overly keen on the idea as I felt soon I would make a good one as well as the expense of a new one that I would rather the money go to a human than a dog (sorry). In the midst of this I thought it was appropriate to suggest having another baby which really wasn’t the ideal time to ask this in hindsight.

We bought the dog bed and went home. On the journey home I thought that I would try harder with the dog. So I decided to present the dog with the bed when we got home making a big deal out of it for him.

Quietly Andy pointed to my shoes. These were my current favourites. They were old school with a sensible, squishy sole for orthopaedic purposes and I loved them. They were retro looking fisherman sandals and they were so comfy. Not only that but I found them for a quarter of the price that they are sold for on the website by looking at a selling website. So a win.

I looked down at the shoes and I had to stare for a while to take it in. The middle of one of the shoes had been chewed through. No leather t-bar left, for fisherman part of the shoe was left.

I walked up the stairs, shut the door to my bedroom and cried.

I understand that you may be thinking how shallow this sounds and I couldn’t agree with you more. I know that this is really nothing. It is over a shoe. I understand this is trivial to many, many, many things but in that moment I was upset.

This dog had found something, the one thing I really liked and chewed it up and swallowed the leather pieces. This dog that I have found hard to have did this and it made me sad.

Once I had had a cry and got perspective that this is just a shoe and he is just a dog that didn’t realise what he had done. I settled.

I started to give thanks for the things that I do have and can see which is what I try to do when I am sad and whilst doing this I gave thanks for the fact that I didn’t pay full price for the chewed up shoe. This helped as only a bit of money was chewed up not lots, which could have been the case.

I know a silly story but it makes me happy knowing that I buy so much second hand and vintage.

Do you have a vintage item that really love?