….and Then There Were Three

We have been building this house for near enough seven years now.  What was supposed to be a quick in and out job, all organised and paid for, legal and above-board turned into one of those hideous con-jobs that one reads about in women's magazines.  I won't bore you with all the details, but it was the reason that we were in no position to take a dog before Looki. By that time things were starting to settle down, we finally had a house of sorts and I also could finally turn my attention to finding a job, which thankfully I did.  Stability was returning to our lives.

We still have some huge bills to pay and for that reason Vic still has to work away.  We could not pay off what we owe or do the bits and pieces of finishing work that we are currently doing based on what he or I could earn in Spain.

So I spend quite a lot of time on my own in this house.  Well, not on my own now it is true and when Looki came our way, well, staying in, reading a good book and rubbing his shaggy head became a very pleasant option.  That's not to say I became a hermit.  I still like to go out to meet 'The Girls' on a Friday night, or if I spontaneously bump into friends in the square who say "Sit down and share a glass or two with us" I willingly oblige also.  As a result I have been known to come home a bit squiffy from time to time and then, like a lot of people in the privacy of their own home and without harm to anybody else, I might surf the 'net a little bit, you know what I mean, a little bit of FaceBook and some YouTube and after another nightcap or two I got quite fond of viewing 'Westie Porn'!

There is no other word for it really.  Type in 'Dirty Westies' and see what images come up!  I trawled all the sites;  'A Dirty Westie is a Happy Westie', 'Burrs in your Face', 'We are Digging Dogs', 'I'm a Westie. Take me Home!', Etc etc.

I found myself drooling over little Westie pups.  Soooooo cute!  Like tiny, spiky snowballs with teeny, black eyes and rather large, black noses.  Anyway I did feel that Looki needed a little buddy to keep him company when I had to go to work.  Whenever I was going out he would trot hopefully through the house after me, then hang back a bit, hovering in the kitchen, ever hopeful that I would call him and put his collar and leash on and invite him to come with me.  I hated that look he gave me, like a lamb with its throat slit, as my friend Marisa put it one evening when we were out sharing a couple of drinks and tapas.  So though I had not yet mentioned it to Vic I was seriously considering another Westie as I had by this time fallen head over heels in love with Looki and the breed.  And this is the girl who said that she would only ever have Collies by the way!

It was around the end of March when my dear friend Jane dropped a 'share' photo onto my FaceBook page.  "What do you think Mary Gregoriy?" It said.

It was of two shaggy Westies, mirror images of Looki.

Two little Westie girls were looking for a new home as their mummy and daddy were relocating back to the UK and travelling shortly thereafter to live in Malaysia.  They could not take the girls with them.

I looked at the photo of two little scraps who looked exactly like Looki.  They were lying on an oriental rug very similar to the one in our own living room and they looked gorgeous!

I rang the rescue centre which had posted the original photo and expressed my interest. I was told that apparently the owners were adamant that the sisters would not be split up.  So we couldn't just take one of them.

There followed a flurry of correspondence between Vic and myself throughout the course of the day.  He was surprised and asked me if this was not just some whim.  That was when I had to admit my guilty little 'Westie Porn' secret.  He did mention that I could get help for that and then, being a sensible chap, he asked me had I considered the implications of taking care of three dogs and, as I would be doing it on my own for a lot of the time, how would I walk three at a time? I had thought about it and I did think that though it might be challenging at times I thought that with practice it could be done. 

I also had several conversations with the two women who run the JAWS rescue centre in Jimena, close to where the dogs were living, the lovely Valerie and lovely Harriet, they were of course urging me to take the girls though I didn't really need encouraging.

And I spoke to the mummy of the two little doggies, Lynne.  We spoke for a while and though she was telling me about her dogs she was also listening to me talk about Looki and our situation here and was working out whether we were the right people to take their girls.  Plainly she and her husband had a great affection for them and she was making sure that we would love them and care for them.  I was just delighted that she saw us as the right family to entrust her babies to. Their names were Kerry and Candy. 

My mind was made up by this time, but I was hanging on to hear Vic's final decision.  Eventually, at the end of a very long, exciting and emotionally exhausting day the man from del Monte, well, he did say yes!

It must look strange from the outside that after six and a half years of careless coupledom we suddenly went from being childless to a family of five inside of six months, but I had been yearning for a dog for several years and Vic, though he had never owned a dog before, was equally keen and somewhat curious as to what it would be like to have a dog in the house.  Neither of us foresaw that we would have three West Highland Terriers charging around our heels like a pack of miniature sheep even before the house was completely finished, but we opened the book, turned the page and the chapter was called: 'Three Westies', not one.

Westies just landed