Taz was a two year old lurcher, white with black ears, friendly with people and dogs, good on his lead, took to training well. Perfect.
Driving to our local RSPCA shelter to meet the dog we'd fallen in love with on their website, we couldn't be more excited. Taz ticked all the boxes for us as well as being particularly gorgeous.
The dog we met when we arrived didn't disappoint, though looked nothing like his picture; he was spotty! Despite his dragging me over within the first five seconds of being handed his lead, we were sold. With the reservation papers signed and a home check scheduled for the following week we went home with smiles on our faces and butterflies in our stomachs at the automatic, horrible what if: what if we didn't pass the home check? Was our lovely two bed on Mayfair Road good enough for a lovely boy that deserved everything?
In the days between reserving our new dog and bringing him home we went about blitzing an already pristine - by nineteen year old student standards anyway - flat, and clearing the abomination of a rain-soaked, junk-filled yard the previous tenants had so kindly left. For the record, our lovely home visitor just glanced, which after so much work I must admit was slightly disappointing.
Only once checked out for certain, in the knowledge 'Taz' was really ours did we allow ourselves the childish excitement of buying the necessary toys, bowls and beds, reccying potential walk routes and most importantly - thinking of a name. Taz just didn't have a ring for us, and days of toing and froing of potential monikers including 'Homer' and 'Sid' provided no better opportunity until eventually a suggestion from my sister suited and stuck; Merlin was coming home.
Adopting from the RSPCA was an absolutely wonderful experience that I would recommend to anyone. The staff are very friendly and couldn't be more helpful. Freshly groomed and clutching his "you've found your forever home" rope toy gift from the rehoming coordinator, Merlin left the kennels he'd lived in and hated for nine long months, promptly proceeding to stand on the back seat of the car and distractingly lick ears.
We were of course (as every new dog owner is, I'm sure) ridiculously unprepared for the toast stealing - from Lily's very hand no less, bed hogging, eggy farting terror (conveniently not mentioned in his rehoming profile) we were unleashing into our lives by adopting him, but Merlin has been with us one week now, started half arsedly attempting barking and breaking out in more and more black spots, and I wouldn't change a thing.
He's the true inspiration for starting this blog and I hope anybody reading this will look forward to updates on him, my foray into the world of canine behaviour and anything else dog related that I feel compelled to write about.
Thanks for reading,
Willow x
