3 years ago on the 26th April 2013, We gained a new furry family member, on that day we adopted our crazy Jack Russel X,

Now we had been talking for awhile about getting a dog but as you can imagine, 4 members of a household, 4 different wants and a list of breeds as long as my arm ! My OH was very specific about what he didn’t want in a pooch! Not a small dog, not a girl dog (as you can imagine we were already a very female heavy household!) and not a Jack Russell, the girls wanted a Pug or a Cavalier and I had my heart set on a Frenchie or a Boston.

We had hit a stale mate and then 1 weekend while staying in our caravan in Poole, we popped to the local pets at home for a bag of food for our cat, and there was Tilly with her foster mummy helping to raise money and the profile of a local dog rescue, Dorset dog rescue brings dogs over from Ireland that would have otherwise been destroyed.

Is it to corny to say to say it was love at first sight ? Because I think for all of us it was, but we soon realised it wasn’t to be, Tilly had been rehomed and her new family was meeting her that evening and all being well she would be in her forever home very soon. “Have a look on the website, there are lots of dogs looking for their forever home and new dogs are normally added on Tuesday’s.’ We was told by one of the ladies. As soon as we got home we had a look and we saw  Tilly and lots of other dogs looking for their forever homes, then on the Tuesday, when I went back on to see if there was any new dogs, I noticed that Tilly’s info had been updated so I rang just in case she hadn’t been rehomed.

To my surprise she was still available, she hadn’t liked the other families dog ! So after a call to my vets, to see what kind of a owner I am, and answering a series of questions we was told we could adopt Tilly ! And we could collect her on Friday, to say we was excited would be an understatement. I registered her with our vets and booked her in for a check on the following Wednesday.

After work on Friday I went to pets at home and bought half the the shop! Then we picked up the girls from school, packed up the car and started the long journey from Croydon to Poole, we was the most excited we had ever been, talking/arguing only of Tilly, who’s bed she was going to sleep in – no ones I said she has her own bed and will sleep in the front room ! Who would hold her lead, who’s would be her favourite (I noticed straight away that not one of them was offering to clean up after her though!)

When we arrived at Melissa’s house (Tilly’s foster mummy) lots of dogs came to meet us at the door, there was her 2 cavaliers and a big 4 month old Rottweiler/German Shepard cross puppy called Sasha – she was originally a foster that became a forever – and Tilly’s playmate, Tilly wasn’t amongst them tho she was quiet happy to just chill out on the window sill behind the sofa. We spent quiet a lot of time there filling out paperworkwe then paid our adoption admin fee (£175) and then we got to take her home with us (well to our caravan).

She spent the first 24hrs hiding behind the TV we tried everything but she wasn’t really interested in coming out if we was around, we thought this was understandable, given that in her short life she had been though a fair amount (she had wounds on her back that where still healing from a dog attack that had happened when she was in Ireland) At this point I should probably explain my OH knows her history and knows what happened to her before and how she came to be in kennels in Ireland and then subsequently came to be bought over to Dorset, I made the decision, after talking with my OH, that I didn’t want or need to know, her life, as far as I’m concerned started the day she came home with us. We did ring the rescue and they said it was a big change for her and they was sure she would soon settle.

On the 28th of April, 2 days after we got her we managed to convince her to come out from behind the TV long enough so that we could go to a local charity dog show for the stray dogs of Greece. Tilly was in her element and we even entered her in a category – prettiest bitch – she came 4th and when the judge gave her her rosette, he said to her ‘you know I love you Tilly and if I had room you’d have been in my pack, I would have given you first but I’m bias!’ He then turned to us and said ‘I’m so glad she found her forever home, she’s a lovely little dog’  It turned out the judge was Tilly’s/the rescues vet, and he had been looking after her, he really wanted to adopt her but couldn’t take on another dog! From that moment on she stopped going behind the TV and although eating when we was around took a little longer, she seemed to realised that we was ok and wasn’t going to hurt her or leave her.

People falling in love with her when they meet her seems to be common place with Tilly, she is just so cute, loving and lovable – even if I do say so myself. Even now at around 4years old she gets mistaken for a puppy! She has had lots of fun times with us and when we went on holiday to Mallorca almost 2 years ago now she got ‘married’ to Jack! (my friends Jack X) and just like my babies she spoilt to protection. Another thing that people like to do is guess what she might be crossed with, main consensus is that she is a Jack X chihuahua but we have had Pomeranian and corgi thrown in the mix a few times and while the juries still out, Tilly insists that she is definitely part bull mastiff! May be one day I’ll get her DNA tested and we will know once and for all.(this is a real thing – and you just thought DNA tests was just for the Jeremy Kyle show!)

It wasn’t easy in those early days, but then no new puppy/dog is, when I think about how different/short her life could have been and that if she hadn’t been rescued from Ireland she might never have got to bring so much joy in to our life, and worse than that she might never have known the love of a family, I hope we have bought as much happiness into her life as she has to ours.

Save a life, change a life, don’t buy, adopt

love and hugs to you and your fur babies from Sparkly Mummy and Tilly xxx