This is my dog.
Her name is Scarlette. Yup, spelt like that too, thanks to Tony. (Scarlette. Hours later, after we named her, we realised we should have saved that name for a baby, and named the dog Violet instead, to fit in with Purple life we were building.)
I suppose she should get a pseudonym, everyone else here does. But I couldn't think of an appropriate one other than 'That Bloody Dog', and that doesn't seem every nice. So we'll go with her real name and hope no one takes legal action.
Tony and I, we referred to her as our 'practise baby'. If we could raise a dog OK, then we were fine to have kids.
Maybe that's why I freaked out so much when I found out I was pregnant. This dog was chronically, atrociously misbehaved. What the hell were we going to do with a child?
Tony and I, we bought Scarlette just days after we moved into the Purple House. As a tiny puppy, we fed her and cared for her and walked her.
Walking. When I was pregnant, the first time around, I walked every day, for hours, a kilometre or two, dog by my side.
And then I had kids. And the dog.. well.. suffice to say, I think, that she became Tony's dog, more than mine.
Scarlette and Tony hung out in their garage at the back of the house. When Tony went out onto the street to talk to the neighbours, Scarlette came too.
We never worried about her running off. A call of her name and she'd be back. A few times, she was inadvertently locked outside our back gate for hours. And she sat, patiently, waiting to be let back in.
Why would she want to go anywhere, when she had it so good here?
Let's face it, I'm moving to a rental. Protection aside, a dog is a pain in the butt, and it would much easier to move without her. My emotional ties to anything except my kids at the moment are more than minimal.
But.. hey, good dogs can be hard to find. And now that's she's grown up a bit, she's a damn good dog. She has her bad habits- pulling on the lead being just the beginning...
But the Bump, she quite often flops on Scarlette in the backyard like the dog is a pillow. And Chop and Scarlette, they run for hours, chasing each other round and round...
Maybe she's not my dog now, so much as the Chop's dog. And goodness knows, all boys need a dog. Especially boys without a daddy.
When my neighbours cut Tony down, when they were performing the CPR.... Scarlette didn't leave Tony's side for a second, not until the paramedics got there and they had to lock her up. She stayed with Tony, as they tried to revive him. Licking his face, nuzzling him.. trying to wake him up.
She stayed with him, when I couldn't. And, as stupid as it sounds to be saying this about a dog- I'll forever be grateful to her for that.
And so that's why... when we leave our Purple Life behind, in a week and a bit, to start a new one....
Scarlette, our dog? She's coming too.
"Ohana means family. And family means no one gets left behind."
Disney movie (shuddup). 'Lilo and Stitch'.