This month it was a year since our puppy, Misty arrived to live with her new family. Anyone who has owned a pet before will know it’s an exciting time watching them make themselves at home, even if it can also be a little bittersweet for some.
Misty, a Cockapoo, was born in January 2023 and moved in with my partner and stepdaughters last March. She isn’t my first dog, but visiting her when she was just a few weeks old started an experience I am so grateful to have been a part of.
I’d never seen a puppy that young before. Barely able to open her eyes, gentle squeaks to communicate and the softest fur I’ve ever felt.
But Misty’s planned arrival was because someone had made room for her and it was this that added a slight sadness to her arrival.
Heidi was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier/Collie cross and my first-ever dog. A title she will have forever, a title no one can ever take away from her.
Heidi was 16 when she passed away. She was ready and it was time, but like so many others who have said “goodbye” to pets, I’m not so sure I was ready.
She’d been a part of some incredible highs in my life and been there for me during my darkest moments. Never questioning, never impatient or bored, always there to lay her head on my leg or arm should she feel I needed a little boost.
Read: Obituary: Heidi, local newshound and ‘prettiest dog in Bedford’
At the time she passed, I was devastated. While family and friends helped, a Facebook group Bedford Pet Bereavement Pals also allowed me to share my grief and memories of Heidi and showed the healing a new dog can bring when the time is right.
However, I still had an uneasy feeling. As exciting and delightful as this new puppy was proving to be, could they fill the massive hole left by Heidi, the most loyal of dogs and a perfect example of man’s best friend?
Helpless
When Heidi had her arrival day many years ago, she was already house-trained. While I knew this was superb luck, I hadn’t realised how much so until Misty arrived.
A friend of mine, and former local journalist, Hayley Finch, now runs a PR agency dedicated to animal news. We chatted on the phone not long after Misty’s arrival.
“Puppies are hard work,” she said, “It’s like looking after a baby. No, it’s harder than looking after a baby, imagine if a baby with no nappy was able to walk and run away.”
As if to prove Hayley’s point, moments after finishing the call a three-month-old Misty decided to do another wee on the kitchen floor while looking directly at me, seemingly smug that I was now going to have to clean it up.
Of course, babies and puppies are not exactly comparable, but Hayley makes a great point.
We let these little poo factories into our homes and they rely on us for everything, including cleaning up after them while also showing them how to ask to go outside. Rewarding them so they recognise excitement with doing their business outside.
My neighbours must think Misty’s ‘mum’ and I are mad with the late-night garden celebrations we performed as she began to recognise that outside is good and inside is bad.
Puppies, let’s be honest, are not proper dogs. They are constantly playing and biting things they shouldn’t, peeing and pooing everywhere, and hiding from the terror of the bin men clattering outside on Wednesdays.
They’re time-consuming and generally quite annoying.
But then they fall asleep on your arm or at your feet, looking cute enough to warm the coldest of hearts. Fast asleep, feeling safe as they’re close to the person they’ve entrusted as their protector, the person who will save them from the bin men or the window cleaner’s ladder.
They have chosen you to look after them, you’re now responsible for their safety and like it or not, there’s nothing you can do about it.
They begin to get under your skin. They start to creep into that hole left by a previous pet and they start to make their own place in your heart.
Big shoes to fill
Misty was always going to have big shoes to fill and it would have been unfair to expect her to fit those shoes perfectly.
As she has grown she’s developed her own personality and she’s fitting into my life the way she wants to.
At a year old she now recognises when one of us is upset or unwell and she’ll remain by our side, a comforting paw on our arm or resting her head on our leg as if to tell us “it’ll be ok”.
She loves to play with her ‘sisters’ and has a different relationship with each of us, and she rarely leaves her ‘mum’s’ side. In fact, if we all arrive home together, she’ll make a beeline for Mandy, ignoring everyone else until she’s welcomed her first.
She’s also taking on the role of ‘pack protector’ too. Now she’ll bark at the bin men rather than hide and she growl at any birds or squirrels that dare to come into our garden, so long as she’s on the right side of a window.
She’s still building up her courage to face the window cleaner’s ladder though.
She loves to run around the park and she’s always happy to make new friends of all sizes, two legs and four, and she loves to chase sticks, something I’m very happy with as it was one of mine had Heidi’s favourite games too.
I am so grateful for the role Heidi played in my life and the memories we made together. A title she will have forever, a title no one can ever take away from her and I miss her terribly.
A mix of tears are even forming in my eyes as I write this. Some are sad she has gone, but some are happy she existed.
Misty will, of course, never replace Heidi, but she was never meant to. Of course she will make a mark on my life and the lives of all the others she meets, but that mark will be her own and be made on her terms.
She’ll also soon join the other Bedford Independent news hounds, sniffing out stories across the Borough.
I can’t wait to see what adventures she takes us all on and the memories Mandy, the girls and I will all create together with her. After all, she’s our first-ever puppy and no one can take that away from her.
