This morning I was sitting on the sofa sipping my coffee, watching Peppa Pig of course, and suddenly my eyes witnessed that scene:
Victor trying to sit in Nala’s bed, our dog. Well actually trying to sit on her while she was in there, all curled up and sleeping soundly. She only opened her eyes to see what was going on, but didn’t move. Then an hour later, there she is lying down with Victor, again trying to climb on her squeaking very excitedly, and she pawed him in the most gentled way.
I realised that since I started this blog I never wrote about our amazing dog and I thought how unfair, she is such a big part of our life so here it is, here is her story.
One day back 4 years ago, I was at work when a colleague announced that her mum’s dog had just had puppies and wanted to give them away to loving families. It wasn’t long before I called Craig and asked, well rather begged “can we have one, pleeeaaase...?”.
Him: What is it?
Me: A Jack Russel cross.
Him: you don’t even like Jack Russells and you know I really don’t like them. And they are too small anyway, I like big dogs. So the answer is no!
Big sigh from me at the end of the line, put the phone down with attitude and thought “Oh YEAH you want a big dog?!” and went straight onto google (where else really?) and typed “biggest dog in the world” and got this as a result http://www.worldslargestdog1.com/zorba.html
Then I emailed it to Craig and you know what he said? He said “yes, ok I like this type of dogs” and then I thought “I like this type of dogs too!! Are we MAD?!” and it was the beginning of the madness that never left us! I spent all day that day researching breeders across the UK and the more I read on these dogs the more I wanted one! Of course, no need to say that whole family looked at us twice, checked we weren’t in complete delirium and then asked “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!!”
Nothing was wrong we were just ready to spend an absolute fortune on a dog that would fill the entire boot of our Renault Espace... Hell yes, what was wrong with us?!
After weeks of researching and speaking to breeders we found our perfect one. She was in Scotland, but at that stage, we would have probably flown to Norway to get her, hadn’t it been for the quarantine that stopped us.
So off we went on a weekend to lovely Edinburgh and a night spent at the B&B the breeder was also running. Lesley welcomed us in the house and after a long chat around lots of cigarettes (I was then a smoker) and a couple of (a few) gin tonics, we proceeded to the kitchen for dinner. At that point I was desperate to meet the parents of our future dog and there I was, greeted in the kitchen by the BIGGEST DOG I HAD EVER SEEN!!!
His name was Claude, sweet and extremely friendly, but boy he was HUGE! His head was as wide as me (well at the time I was considerably slimmer) and he was looking straight at my belly button!
I went to bed that night saying to Craig that we could not have a dog THIS BIG. In my drunken state, I remember saying that if our dog was this big, should she lie down in our corridor there would be no way we could access any room, because she would be blocking the way! Craig, replied something like “yes dear, shut up and sleep!”.
It is the following morning that we saw all the others and it was obvious then that Claude was the biggest of all! Pfew we were safe. So we went home with our name on a puppy list and a hangover.
Nala was born on November the 29th.It was becoming real!
We picked her up at 8 weeks already the size of an adult Labrador.
With her we discovered discrimination, no puppy class wanted such a big puppy that might hurt tiny poodles!
We also discovered why they do pooper scooper this big.
We gave up long walk in the countryside in peace. Instead it was constant interruption saying “no it is not a Great Dane, she is 6 months old and no she hasn’t finished growing!”.
We had to change our sports car definitely dog unfriendly and bought a Zafira instead. Friends and family thought this was cool as they could get group lifts to parties.
There were no more parties at the drop of the hat! We had to make sure at least one of us would go home to sort her out first.
We could have left the door open all day, no one would have liked being greeted by a dog this size with threatening shoe laces hanging down each side of her mouth.
We had to suddenly look at dog friendly hotels or book ahead family members in order to go away.
All of these little things were very good training before having children. They drool too, take over your car and your house and there is definitely no parties at the drop of the hat!
Most importantly Nala grew to become the most patient, loving dog I had ever had. She witnessed the most important times of our life so far.
She even made it to our wedding reception!
We stood by her during her knee operations.
We share good TV together.
We even pretended to be supermodels!
She always knows when one of us is not feeling quite right and will hover around until we feel better.
We nicknamed her Scoobidoo because, let’s be honest, she is a bit of a wimp. She used to freak at the slightest noise in the house and would follow us rather than go ahead and check.
But since the birth of the boys she’s discovered the soul of a fighter within herself. She will protect her brood no matter what. Don’t get me wrong though. She will never attack, instead she put her size and weight between the boys and the predator, showing who’s the boss, giving “the” look.
Another thing people say when they see her is “Oh My God she must eat a cow per day and need so much exercise!!”. Well actually she only eats half a cow and she takes after me regarding exercise. Her favourite position is lying down across the floor, making funny snoring noises (like the ones she is making as I type). The snoring is unlike me though.
Sometime I wonder if she really is a dog. You can leave something really tasty on the worktops, the whole day and you will find her lying down drooling looking at, but it will still be there! Considering the minimum effort she would have to make to reach for it, it is weird...
Well actually I will put it down on the hours of training we shared in the early puppy days. I think we deserve the praise.
When we had Elliott we were slightly worried of the reaction she might have: would she be jealous? Would she become depressed?
No none of this, she took Elliott and Victor as members of her family straight away and you can tell by the way she greets them when we come home. Elliott is slightly annoyed to be licked in the face, the minute he gets home, but I know that deep down he loves it.
It is such a great pleasure to see him and her playing together for hours in the garden. We are pleased to know that both Elliott and Victor will grow up with the best dog in the world and that they will remember her forever.
As for Craig and I she will always be our special dog. We are hoping to have lots of years ahead together but when the day comes, when she will have to go, there will never be another dog like her...
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