Our cocker spaniel Charlie has been a life changer for our family.
I'd grown up with a succession of cocker spaniels and as an adult had one who died when my kids were tiny and for one reason and another we never got another dog.
My DH died in March 2017 and my then 11yo Ds2 kept asking about getting a dog, I was in no state to have to deal with yet another thing and kept saying no, Ds2 kept asking more and more and eventually I snapped and told him that no way was it happening. Ds2 backed off and that gave me space to think about it, and after a couple of months we all had a conversation and agreed we'd think about it.
I found a nearby litter of cockers, took the kids for a look and that was it, we were all utterly smitten. We chose our boy and had to wait 4 weeks to collect him.
On the day we were due to pick him up he and 2 of his litter mates had a freak accident and lapped at some detergent. The breeder was in bits, the pups were kept at the vets and we clearly couldn't collect. I was still pretty fragile (it was about 6 months after DH died) and I nearly completely fell apart. Thankfully they were all okay and we collected him a couple of days later.
The impact on all of us has been fantastic.
He gets me out of the house, and being outside with him is so grounding. I've started taking him to agility and we both love it, although I'm nowhere near agile enough.
The boys also walk him and will take him together when they run which is lovely.
He's been an outlet for the grief for all of us, someone to cuddle, to play with, to be there when we come home and in the lonely evenings, to need us to keep going. A new life in all the pain.
Part of me struggled with getting a dog as I knew that eventually we would lose it and in the place I was in I found it hard to contemplate that conceptual eventuality. But life is for living, and as the saying goes it is better to have loved and lost than never loved at all.
And having gone through that process later gave me the strength to start to look for love in my own life again.
He's such a cuddly dog and will happily sit with us all evening.
13yo Ds2 adores him and 16yo Ds1 although more restrained is equally besotted, a number of times I've come across Ds1 rocking Charlie like a baby and saying "we do love you don't we".
He is such a cheeky little thing, loves to steal socks and taunts you with them while knowing perfectly well he shouldn't have them, and loves it if you chase him - but only really carries things around, doesn't chew them up.
He is so friendly and has such a happy personality.
He is sooo hairy, much more than any cocker I've ever had - we joke he's been crossed with an afhgan!, so I spend time every evening grooming him as I can't bring myself to have him clipped.
This thread has touched such a nerve in me, I read the OP and have just poured out my thoughts and am now feeling quite emotional. And even after writing it all I don't think I've come close to describing how Charlie has actually impacted on our lives.