Wednesday 15 January 2020

Buying the boy...

Just over 12 years a go. I was sat in my flat alone and although I can't remember my specific emotion at the time, I was likely to be feeling pretty skittish because back in those days I was probably even more impulsive than I am now. 

I remember sitting at my Argos built flat packed table on probably the most uncomfortable broken chairs known to man surfing the internet looking at the usual crap you find online to read!!!! 

I accessed a website called "Preloved.com" On this website was items like furniture, cars and the usual crap on any second hand website. Instead of looking for a chair to replace the broken one I was sat on. I decided to look up animals. Not the brightest idea I had at the time. I looked at turtles, fish, kittens, dogs and other small furry creatures that all looked adorably cute as I skimmed through the endless pages of poor animals that desperately required a loving home.

Me being me and the impulsive side of my personality getting the better of me. I decided to buy a Puppy! I am not quite sure why I didn't head back to the chair pages, or would that be as boring as the table top dishwasher I had once purchased when I arrived home drunk to find endless amounts of washing up I couldn't be bothered to wash? Me and my impulsivity sure do the strangest of things at times. 

So the puppy. I had never owned a dog before, even after years of trying to persuade my parents to buy a welsh collie every time I entered welsh land on holiday. I did get rabbits one year so cant complain too much. But, I had never had a dog! So there I was going through pages of puppies and dogs. I saw one named Ruby, she was a 6 month old staffy cross English mastiff but I did see sense when I thought of my small one bedroomed little council flat with no garden. I do hope Ruby found a loving home. 

So there he was this little 4 month old puppy, what was advertised as what is now known not to be a fully fledged black male staffy. He had little tap dancing shoes (white paws). His pictures were amazingly cute, not dislike any puppy really. What convinced me that I had to have him was the fact the owners had advertised him on a webcam...something back then that wasn't like face time and WhatsApp video like we do now. I was in love...

I immediately contacted the the owners, who lived in Cardiff and said he was just what I was looking for, as if I had been searching for the right puppy for weeks!

I called my mum, to her surprise I announced I was driving to Cardiff this very moment to collect a puppy. Well I cannot actually remember her words but I can imagine the other end of the phone she was shaking her head and rolling her eyes as mothers do.

We set off that night in the pouring down rain and drove to probably the roughest council estate in Cardiff.

Upon arrival and knocking the door, soaking wet, tired from the drive in the storm and needing a wee. (I am surprised I held it in that long, with my bladder!) This dodgy looking couple showed us in. Not so much of a warm welcome, offering my mum and I a cup of tea but rather a look longing for us to get in and out as soon as feasibly possible with no consideration for the terrible long journey we had in the rain.

There were dogs running around everywhere, labs, jack russells and staffies and then I saw him.... This bundle of energy (4 month old puppies are very lively) bombing towards me at a million miles an hour, legs skidding on the wet laminate floor before landing, with steam coming off his feet to a ground halt next to my handbag on the sofa where I perched. It was love at first sight. I think it had something to do with the fact he pulled my cigarette box, Marlborough lights, straight out of my handbag. A man after my own heart, I really could have done with a fag right at that moment!

The owners introduced me to "Tyson" I mean I have hung around with some rough necks in my life but none of them had a dog called Tyson. I mean he definitely didn't resemble some big burly boxing champion who goes around biting off ears. Although he certainly did learn to bite, fortunately it was never my ear. 

The couple were dodgy and conveniently couldn't find his papers or even remember what vet he had gone to for his injections. I passed over the wod of cash for this 4 month old "genuine" staffy. Little did I know....

I am sure to this day that the owners would have put his in a bin bag full of rocks and thrown him in the river. It was very apparent they didn't want him.

He was a good as gold on the drive home, fell asleep the entire way and that is when he arrived at his new forever home. He was my boy, turns out he is the bestest boy actually! 

So first things first the name change. Having an alter ego of an alternative hippy type chick and of the spiritual nature that I am I chose the name Bodhi. Well Bodhisattva if you want the long version. For those of you who have no idea what a Bodhisattva is, it is one of two things....

The first is this, a reason that I believe I hoped and prayed that my new puppy would be in some shape or form. Something that I inspire to be myself, with a lot of misguided failings. But I try to keep the mind of a Bodhisattva as much as possible, even if I struggle to do it. The practice of the Bodhisattva is something that is a life skill for eternity and is a constantly fluctuating state of mind....You'll see...


The next is one of the best films I have ever watched growing up and inspired me into the start of my soul searching ways from feeling like an inadequate, alternative, awkward teenage rock chick looking to be no longer lost.....



So there you have the introduction to my best friend, my fur baby. The most loyal, handsome (albeit old and grey now) puppy....Bodhi! 









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