All grown up

People keep saying to me "oh Steve, how much you've grown" - this is very boring but after looking through photos today I take their point. Today I am nine months and ten days old: I have all my adult teeth and I weigh 7kgs; I have had all my puppy shots and a certain operation; I can sit and stay; fetch and catch a ball; I sleep by myself at night and can be left on my own during the day; and I feel safe and loved by family and friends. In the photo I am just a little over 6 weeks old and this is the first night I spent with M and G. They seemed to want me there but I was not so sure about them. G went out and came back with a straw basket for me to sleep in, a rope to chew on, and a snake to play with. Of course I also had Monkey – she was the only thing to come with me from my former home. That first night I found myself shivering – away from the warmth of the moving scrum that was my brother and sisters – I was cold; perhaps just scared, and maybe a little excited as well. So much was new it was overwhelming but thrilling at the same time. Just one example was being taken out into the garden to go to the toilet where I encountered grass for the first time, having previously been confined to a concrete courtyard this was foreign new ground – I even shivered and paused before I took my tentative first step. 

Later that night M and G put my new basket on their bed and when they thought I was asleep they put me on the floor beside them. In reality I don’t think I slept at all that night – but I bit into monkey’s bum and kept my whimpering at bay. But as the long night progressed I noticed M peering down from the bed at me when I rolled over, or sighed, and she would smile encouragingly at me. And the next morning G greeted me with games and laughs, and we rumbled and played. 

Now it seems difficult to really remember what any of that felt like – it is more like telling a story that might have happened to somebody else. But when I look into the eyes of the puppy in this photograph I can remember the uncertainty but I also see the openness and hopeful optimism. And it is the latter that I hope to take with me into my adult life.