Animal instinct

There are at least three separate subjects I would have loved to have written about today but this short note will hopefully go some way to explain the patience and love two members of our family have displayed to our three new additions since their arrival 6 months ago. 

Coco and Ned are our much loved dogs. They've endured no end of turbulence and some extreme violence (scissors and tail) since June. Much like us they've rolled their eyes and looked longingly at each other trying to remember what life as like before the tornado struck but much like us, their love is unfaltering. 

Their instinct has also proved immensely helpful. There is no better barometer of child ill-health in our house than a chocolate lab. Tonight, eager to get an early night, I searched the house for the dogs so I could get them out for their last pit stop. One was not in her usual spots. I found her on middle tiddles bed. Immediately I ask her to move, she doesn't, I try and shift her, she's stuck like glue, only then do I hear the raspy sound of a boy full of snuffles and the distinctive murmurs of an incoming cold. She's detected every sniffle since the day they arrived and has found her way through the house and into their bedroom at even the slightest off-colour day or night. 

The night that little 'un came down with croup she literally cemented herself to the floor of her bedroom before we had even a suspicion she was poorly. It was only four hours later when the little tiddler woke herself up with a bark so ferocious I literally didn't know what to do that we realised why she had so adamantly not wanted to leave her side.

I wasn't the best Mum today. One thing after another meant that I wasn't as patient as I later wished I could have been. We all have plenty of days like this but it doesn't make it easy so I guess it's good to know that when my time is being taken up looking after one, the pups are always looking out for the others.