I have recovered

No blog yesterday. The day was way too emotional for me to be the slightest bit coherent.



It all started when Big Boss asked for a "quiet word". Always worrying when Big Boss asks for one of those. I suppose I could have said "silence", it is a quiet word after all, but somehow I felt that flippancy was not going to be the order of the day.



It all started because I am in the enviable position, at least, I feel it's an enviable position, of being able to take Lurcher No.2 to work with me. He's been coming with me since he was 12 weeks old and now that he's the grand age of 14 months, he's settled into the routine and pootles about nicely in the yard with the other dogs, outside the office or curled up under my desk. He occasionally likes to go see people and say hello. He is a very sociable dog after all. he's very calm and well-behaved and always does as he's told.



However, last Friday, I forgot to pick up his dog bed to bring home to wash and when one of my colleagues went into the office on Saturday morning, there was a distinct air of "dogginess" about the place. This was fine until some terribly helpful member of the public decided to drag dog poo into the office and onto the mats. Said colleague threw a hissy fit at that point and the Big Boss happened to walk in. So the "quiet word" was to announce that Lurcher No.2 could no longer come into the office. Well! I was completely gobsmacked, and absolutely furious. If said colleague had a problem why on earth didn't he talk to me?



I was hurt and very upset. I had to listen to Lurcher No.2 in the yard, crying and whining because he couldn't understand why he couldn't come in the office. It would take months of re-training and over cold and wet winter months he'd have to be out in the elements. After listening to said crying and whining for several hours, Not Quite So Big Boss had enough and told Big Boss what for. The upshot of which was that Lurcher No. 2 is now allowed back in the office, as long as he doesn't wander around and I remember to take his bed home and wash it a bit more often! Phew! Such a roller-coaster of emotions!



This might all sound like a complete over-reaction on my part but my dogs are my children to me (not having any human ones) and one of the reasons we decided to home Lurcher No.2 was the fact that I could take him to work, and he was welcomed by previous Big Boss. (Lurcher No.1 goes to work with my partner.) We could have managed but both dogs would have had to stay at home all day and that is not the life we want for them. Perhaps I'm also being selfish, after all, he could still have come with me and we could have made other arrangements. I think maybe I was also feeling a little guilty because it was partly my fault for the situation arising in the first place.



A lesson learned for me though - not everyone looks upon their dogs as I do - and I guess it's important to remember that.