I have a smallish 4 bed house, with a smallish but totally enclosed garden , and 1.5 cats ..one diva of a girl cat and one unfaithful boy who spends 90%of his day with Thelma 4 doors down !
My children are all grown up but at the moment , I have 5 with us... one will go in June (My DS1's fiancee who is an Aussie and her visa is up..he will follow when his visa comes through) two more are with us until next xmas and will then be moving out..possibly with diva cat who adores them.
Which will leave only ds2, who is a young man with autism. He is gentle and kind, adores the cats, and is obsessed with dogs. He is unlikely to ever live independently or marry, and he REALLY wants a dog to love.He needs a companion andI also want a dog to love!
Our house sounds busy but the reality is DS2 is home all but an hour before I get home, and a dog would never be alone for any length of time... I work school hours and he has a pt job that starts at 2pm :)
I am itching to start investigating breeds and starting to find the dog for us. I would like a smallish to medium sized dog (no handbag sized breeds) that can live with cats and has moderate exercise needs.
I'm happy to wait until everyone has moved out if that is best for the dog, but equally would love to think about finding one this summer when I would be home for 6 weeks. I would prefer to have a rescue on principle, but do not know if as first timers, we would be considered... and our local rescue is full of staffies, which I'm afraid I'm not keen on.
DS2's idea of happiness would be an Irish Setter but I'm not sure we would be the right people, as first time owners for such a daft dog :D (our friend has a gorgeous one and DS2 adores him)
I am willing to have a puppy but am very anxious to get it right..I'm totally aware of the long term committment (my last cat was 19 when she died!)
Any suggestions of how to look, what breeds to look at (also happy to have a non breed heinz dog) and how to go about it, please?
I basically want a dog who will be a companion and cuddle beastie for DS2 but will love us all!
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The doghouse
I've never had a dog, but the time is coming... advise me!
19 replies
StillMedusa · 10/02/2019 00:45
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