Love at First Sight

Sipping black coffee flicking through the classified ads in the local paper, my eyes flicked to the big bold print "Doa-se."

A litter of mongel puppies were available for adoption so I called the number. It was a sign. The owner gave me the address and it just so happened to be next door to the house I was planning to buy. I drove over and as I walked up to the front gate, six monochrome balls of fluff came bouncing out to meet me. Only 6 weeks old and full of playful energy. A

lmost immediately, the larger of the black and white pups bounded over to me and started playfully nipping

my fingers. That was Dotty.

A few moments later, the biggest and blackest of the litter came and sat down between my ankles and every step I took, she followed me like a shadow. That was Sombra, (portuguese for Shadow.)

I´m not sure who chose who but looking back it was a brave move. I´d had in mind to bring one of the pups home but when my boyfriend saw Sombra, he fell in love and said "bring both of them home." Obviously I didn´t take much convincing.

At the beginning things seemed fine and they adapted quickly to their new home. After all their injections and a two week wait, they were finally ready for their first walk. Sombra quickly learnt how to walk on a lead but Dotty refused to budge. She would walk a few steps then stop and sit down. As I live in the countryside and there were no other dogs around, I let them off for a run. They bounced through bushes, dug up holes and chased b

utterflies. They loved it.

A few days after that walk I noticed that Dotty was getting a little thin and wasn´t eating properly. I had a barbecue and she sat quietly shivering while Sombra was jumping around hoping for scraps of meat. I was worried. The next day, Dotty´s stomach was enormo

us. It looked as though she´d swallowed a whole melon so I immediately took her to the vet.

The vet took blood samples and drained the fluid from her stomach and told me that she wasn´t sure she´d survive. I was given antibiotics for Dotty to take and told to make her eat and keep her warm.

The blood tests came back showing Dotty was anemic. More tablets and liquids for her and blended liver followed. I was certain she would die, but she pulled through! A week later I took her back to the vet who couldn´t believe it was the same dog.

Since then, Dotty has become a little trouble maker! She sneaks into the house when nobody is looking, she pulls laundry off the line, runs off whenever the gate is open and worst of all, has a taste for killing small birds and lizards.

All that aside, I´m the proud owner of two cute little mongrels with two huge personalities and I wouldn´t change that for the world!