All Change!

This is Coco Chanel:God works in mysterious ways! I rang a Cocker Spaniel breeder, a friend of a friend who is becoming a friend of mine, to discuss the puppy we saw on Sunday. I was concerned about the weepy eye and whether her tail had been docked properly and while we had said that we wanted her, we were not due to finalise this until the owner came home from his holiday next week. This lady had been my first port of call fo a puppy but all her Cocker Spaniels had been sold. Except one, it turns out: a beautiful chocolate girl, so lovely in fact that the breeder had been going to keep her. But, feeling overwhelmed with the number of dogs she has at the moment and with the opportunity to let her go to a friend, a home she knows will be good and someone who will visit with the dog, she agreed to let us have her! She took the afternoon to make the decision and to discuss it with her family and, while we were waiting, I realised that I was not comfortable with the owner we were getting a puppy from and how much safer I would feel with a breeder I knew and trusted.

There was delight and joy in our house last night when we were told that we could, indeed, have this very special puppy. She is already called Coco Chanel and we all like that, so the brewing upset over the Faith/Hope debate has been laid to rest.

The seed of the idea of actually getting a dog came on our return from our holiday in Yorkshire. We were so sad to leave, and I would happily relocate, but there are so many reasons to stay where we are and I do believe that God's plan is for us to be here. So I re-framed the question: how could I make life here, in Sunbury, match a little more how I imagined it would be in the Yorkshire Dales? Since our return we have headed out in the car a number of times to explore the Surrey Hills on our doorstep and the children are growing more accustomed to the idea of a Sunday afternoon walk, and I began to consider getting a dog. Little did I know that God already had our dog ready for us back in Reeth and, in fact, we must have seen her without realizing when we borrowed another Cocker Spaniel and a pair of Labradors for a walk when we were there! And, a week on Sunday, our own little bit of the Yorkshire Dales will be coming to live with us.