About 2 weeks ago on a Wednesday night I said to Gemma that it was a shame our friends Malene and Andreas hadn't been able to bring their puppy to Zambia from Denmark (in fact they had to sell her). As I thought about it I wondered if there might be a possibility of us going with them to look at puppies. I even joked that if we found a brother and sister we could take one, and Gemma said that she'd only want a boy dog. Of course this seemed like a bit of a fantasy as Gemma hasn't enjoyed touching/handling animals because she doesn't like being able to feel the bones under the fur! But somehow we managed to keep talking about what we'd call a puppy, coming up with various names, and as we drifted of to sleep I decided that I would talk to Andreas and Malene about it the next day. The following afternoon I went to their house and was amazed to hear that had just bought a female puppy from the SPCA in town as it's mother had been hit by a car. Imagine my surprise when their next breath was to tell me that the SPCA had asked if they could also take the brother puppy (also orphaned). They very nearly bought it to present to us as a gift, but didn't think Gemma could cope with a dog. I told them about our conversation the night before and they said that the brother was really cute and in good health and that they would show us how to look after it. We all agreed that it would be best if the puppies could be kept together as they're only 6 weeks old. Malene and Andreas live opposite us andso the dogs can (and do) see each other each day.
We went to collect the dog, who we promptly named Archie and had him bathed as he was covered in his own poo. As I was driving Gemma was forced to hold the dog on the way home and by the time we were back she had got over her hatred of live furry things (she said it was worse in her head than it was in reality). For the next 3 days I was only toilet duty and Gemma sorted the food. We realise he's quite a clever dog and would only wake us up in the night when he needed to go to the toilet and would return to his bed when we told him it was bedtime. Apparently maltese poodles are some of the easiest to train. Because of where we live we don't have to take him for walks in the traditional sense as there's plenty of room for him to run around the college and there's no fear of traffic. We've left him with his sister (with Malene and Andreas) and are looking forward to getting back to him tomorrow!
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