Simone Reddington

We never had dogs in the house while I grew up, as my dad often worked abroad and everyone was so busy with other commitments and it wasn’t fair to have a dog who would have been left home alone in the house for most of the time. I always told myself that I would get a pet after I left home but when I moved to Liverpool, I obviously couldn’t bring a pet into the rented house shares or the tiny flats where I lived. Owning a dog was a goal that I thought would be unachievable for another few years. I thought that I would have to wait until I became a ‘proper’ adult with my own house and a mortgage before I could even think about welcoming a dog into my life. But then lockdown happened…

I wasn’t in a great state, both mentally and financially, when I lived in Liverpool before we went into the first lockdown. When my work had to close last March, I took the opportunity to move back with my parents in the North East of England. It was a very strange experience for me, as it felt as though I had went back in time to being an angsty teenager again as I had lost all the independence that I had gained as an adult overnight. However, the family home that I had moved back into was in some ways very different to the home where I lived in for my first 18 years. Not only had I obviously aged and changed my mindset a lot in those 5 years since I first moved out to go to university, but the entire world was changing and my family, like every other household in the entire world had to adapt our lives to the pandemic. Both my brother and I were on furlough during the first lockdown and my mum was working from for most of the time. My dad can no longer work abroad any more, and managed to find a new job in the North East. There was not a lot that we could with all the spare time we had on our hands, other than watch endless amounts of TV, and we were feeling very restless. As we saw lots of lovely dogs on my state approved daily walks, all I could think about was how lovely it would be to have my own doggy to cheer me up during these unprecedented times.

Obviously I know that owning a pet is a big responsibility and that a dog is for life, not just for lockdown. I was aware that the lockdown wasn’t going to last forever, and so we held off the idea of getting one. However, by the time the country went back into lockdown again in the winter, I noticed how much life in my household had changed as a result of the pandemic. I have now started a new job, where I am can work from home. I don’t expect that I will have to return to the office for a while yet, meaning that I have plenty of time to watch and look after a new puppy. The big concern I had was who would be able to look after the puppy when everything completely goes back to normal, as I don’t plan on living with my parents forever. However, having to take life at a slower pace during lockdown has made them both realise that they are ready for retirement in the near future. We’re finally at a place where we can welcome a dog into our home.

I absolutely love all dogs and, despite loving my own puppy more than anything else, I would actually find it difficult to choose my own favourite breed. However, as he’s a family pet, and my mum *technically* owns him (she paid the fee for him and will be looking after him if I can’t take him with me when I move out), it was best to let her choose the breed. She wanted a little dog, so we looked at various different breeds before setting on the adorable bichon frises. We went to look at a litter and knew straight away that they were the ones. All the tiny puppies were preciously beautiful, but there was one puppy in particular who we fell in love with. His brothers were a bit more nervous around us but he just wanted to cuddle up in my coat. It truly was love at first sight, and we decided to call him Paddy.

We spent Christmas and early January getting things ready to bring Paddy home. I have to admit that, although I was extremely excited, I was also a tiny bit nervous. I’d never owned a dog before, or any pet larger than the rabbit I kept in a hutch in the back garden nearly a decade ago. Obviously, I was fully committed to taking care of him, but what if I struggled training him or he found it difficult to settle into our household. The main decision that we took a while to come to a conclusion, was whereabouts in the home we would keep his bed and crate. We wanted him in the living room on a night, as this is the central part of our home where we socialise. However, there are also a lot of wires behind the TV that he could potentially chew when left unsupervised in the kitchen overnight. I know a lot of people keep their dogs in their kitchen area or behind the back door, but our kitchen can get very chilly on an evening. We eventually decided to keep him in our conservatory area, which is joined on to our living room, but bought a pen with a gate to keep him away from any risky wires when we go to bed.

We picked him up from the breeder on January 22nd, when he was eight weeks old exactly. The breeder didn’t live too far away from us and we were very impressed with her home, as it was very clear that Paddy and his brothers grew up in a caring and loving environment. She had to hand him over to us on her door-step, due to the lockdown restrictions, and he was wrapped in a blanket with his mother’s scent on that would hopefully calm him down in his first few weeks. We put him him in a cardboard box in the car journey home. We put him on the grass in our front garden before we took him indoors, to try and get him to go to the toilet outside. However, he didn’t need to go so we brought him inside to settle in his new home before he got too cold outside. He was a little bit nervous at first (he tried to hide behind the sofa as soon as our back was turned), but after plenty of cuddles he has quickly got accustomed to his new family.

Paddy has been in our home for over a week now and I absolutely love him. He is starting to develop his own cheeky personality, as he loves trying to steal my dad’s slippers and he adores chasing after his toys in the garden. He’s still a baby, so he’s not completely toilet trained yet, and spends the majority of his time asleep, but he is a beacon of light and love in our home.