Cherise Wins!

Let’s go back to 2009.

Within a few days of buying our new little puppy Cherise Gavin went insane.  No this was not our first dog; I had lived with dogs all my life and we had owned 4 as a couple.

Gavin had always made fun of people; like my parents, who bought coats for dogs.  They were suckers who were being over indulgent.  Then the next week we were driving the kids somewhere and his Little Princess, sitting on my lap, shivered.  He parked the car as quickly as he could.

‘What’s wrong with her, should we take her to the vet?’

‘No, she is just cold, it’s the first really cold day since we’ve had her,’ I replied.

‘What can we do?’ he was panicking by now and this is where I made my mistake.

‘Maybe we should get her a coat!’ I laughed, knowing dog coats were for suckers.

‘Yes, she needs a coat, the poor baby!’ Mr Sensible said.  ‘There’s a Pet Shop nearby, but what can we do until then?  I know give her your jumper!’

‘No I’m cold, I’ll just cuddle her!’

‘But I’m not wearing a jumper,’ he whined.  ‘Kids, someone pass Mum a jumper for the puppy!’

‘No, fine, she can have mine!  Kids keep your jumpers on!’

So I carefully wrapped my lovely jacket around the puppy and when he was satisfied she was warmed he drove the two blocks to the nearest Pet Store.

‘There are cheaper ones at Big W or Kmart (department stores)’ I suggested.

He looked at me, great sorrow in his eyes, ‘When did you become so heartless?’

Then he ran carrying his darling into the store and a shop assistant helped him find a coat that was warm, not irritating for the dog to wear, and pretty enough that it would not damage her fragile self-esteem.  After I had safely gotten the 4 children out of the car and safely across the car park I joined him and made facetious comments to the negative stares of my family and said saleswoman.  The dog coat cost 3 times as much as my lovely jacket, but she needed it.

‘What about a rain jacket?’ asked the assistant.

‘No!’

‘But what if it rains?’ Mr Practical chimed in.

‘I want to see if she is comfortable in this one, if she takes it off in two seconds, well then we’ll have only wasted half the money!’

Actually I had several arguments but this was the only one that worked.

‘So we can come back tomorrow?’ he pressed.

‘But we won’t, Kmart has dog rain jackets for $3’ I said when he was safely back in the car.

I may have gone on a bit there, but my husband is … I really can’t think of the right words, even if I include swearing.

 

 

While I was looking for pictures of Cherise as a baby I found these.