Bing Day

Well, Bing day went pretty much like a dream. I spent the morning vetting the vets and as chance would have it we ended up choosing the same group as Brian & Julie have been using, so there's great sense of continuity there. In the afternoon I tidied up a few loose ends in the dog house, just to make sure that everything was in place for Bing's arrival that evening. Our friend Annie very kindly volunteered to drive us around to collect Bingley in the evening, so I met up with both Jane and Annie after work. The weather was dreadful! We drove through torrential rain, thunder, lightening and even hail stones at one point! It didn't feel like a very propitious beginning; but by the time we reached Gosforth the sun was out and it was a beautiful evening. Brian and Julie were a delight as always, and Coco came out to meet us - it was just as though she was saying 'he's all packed and ready to go.' In fact he was, and once we'd got over the fact that he'd doubled in size since our last visit we were ready to bundle him up and bring him home. Of course we also had to drag ourselves away from 7 other pups who were very keen to nibble our shoes and explore new smells. They'd all been to the vets that morning, so the journey home was Bingley's second car ride that day - and this one with complete strangers and no brothers and sisters to keep him company. Road works and a traffic accident made the journey take longer than it should have, so by the time we arrived home we didn't have a terribly happy puppy. In fact when we first put him down he immediately pressed himself into a corner by the back door and the fridge and he looked so forlorn.


But thankfully that didn't last long! Jane dipped her fingers in his water bowl and then let him lick the water off of her hand. It worked, and within minutes he was lapping from the water bowl, and crunching through his first meal. Then it was off to explore his new home. He's not going upstairs (really!), and initially we're going to use a child-gate to keep him contained in his dog house; but last night we let him have a good sniff around pretty much wherever he wanted to go.


We ended up exploring and playing in the back yard, which was good fun for all of us - and something of a relief after the trauma of the first few minutes! Then it was back inside where, as puppies do, he decided to stop. And sleep. Right there! In fact his favourite place to sleep is turning out to be with his head resting on a sea-worn brick which we use as a door stop. He ends up curled up in his basket, but he always starts by the brick! Go figure.


Jane slept on the sofa last night, with the kitchen door open - just in case. She got up to check him out a couple of times, and he'd obviously been up to pee on the newspapers. But otherwise it was a peaceful night for both. So a good start, and certainly not filled with the all-night crying (from all concerned) which we've read can happen.