When we decided to expand our family and include a member who has fur and not just feet, we committed to it long before we even knew about Jake.
In fact, trace our triangular family’s steps back, and you’ll find that the idea of moving house and changing schools started with a rambling bedtime conversation around “oh hey, we should totally get a dog”. Yes, we committed that much to it.
Just before we met Jake, who is sleeping on my feet as I type, we toyed with what kind of dog would suit us, with my daughter making a long and detailed list of the kind of furry companion she’d like to grow up with. That list is stuck on our fridge, and I’m now somewhat convinced that fairies do exist.
Why on earth would I say such a thing? Because I think the pet fairies saw my daughter’s well-pondered puppy proposal and set off to find the perfect one.
They must have, as he leapt into our arms through a local rescue organisation just a few weeks later. Weighing all of a gangly kilogram, with mottled fur and health issues, Jake came to stay for the night “just to see how he settles”. Of course – you know how this story ends – it’s just over two months later, and he’s quite comfortably curled into our lives.
Now sporting a shiny coat and healthy physique as he bounds around the house, Jake has filled a heart-gap we didn’t know was there.
He really has become member number 4 of our troop. We worry over who will look after him if we’re going out for an extended time, and we coordinate doggy play-dates with our fellow pet-mad friends.
Looking back at the journals of our lives and Jake’s, I see an unexpected destiny taking shape. At the point where he was born into the world and dumped, unwanted, we were packing up our house to move suburbs, just so we could add a dog to our family.
And just at the point in our diaries where I got serious about finding our furry accomplice, he was discovered and taken in by the rescue organisation that would eventually bring him to us.
As we read through the list the other day, chuckling over how very much “just like Jake” our dream dog was, I thought I heard a tiny flap of wings and the tinkle of a bell. Either it was the pet fairies, or just life-change casting its sometimes-funny spell.
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