Life update & welcoming Otis to the family

Hey everybody! Very long time no speak over on the blog as the last six weeks has certainly been a whirlwind for me, my little family and for the house.

I started lockdown with a really positive approach – aside from the occasional off day, I was enjoying time spent at home, a slower way of life and was starting to really relax with it all.

I missed my family & friends terribly but I was learning to make do with brief, doorstop visits and lots of evenings on FaceTime with a glass of wine or two. We even celebrated Guy’s 31st birthday in lockdown at the house (plus a very cold, very windy walk on the beach!) – which was lovely if not a little strange.

In early May, however, things took a down turn when I lost my family dog, Oscar. Oscar was our pride and joy – a miniature poodle – and he passed away peacefully at my parents’ house the day before his 10th birthday. Oscar had been terminally ill since December 2019, and whilst in some ways I knew this was coming, nothing had prepared me for the total heartbreak of actually losing him. I’d felt robbed of the last few months/weeks of his life with not being able to spend time with him at my parents’ house, which I normally did a few times a week at least. The days and weeks that followed were awful, and no exaggeration, some of the worst of my life. Only dog owners and lovers will understand the sheer grief of losing a pet and I don’t think there’ll every be a time when I don’t get teary talking about him. Oscar, you were bloody amazing and the cutest, fluffiest pup in town.

Whilst in the midst of grieving the loss of Oscar, I began to search the internet for things I could do to help – dog charities I could donate to or animal welfare fundraisers I could get involved with, when I started to read more and more about rescuing. Guy & I have been tentatively discussing a rescue dog for about a year now, but the more I researched, the more my heart broke for these lovely little doggies and fulled by my tears, our search for a rescue properly got going.

Let me tell you, it’s not been easy! A huge number of charities we spoke to told us they’d been absolutely inundated with applications and enquiries since lockdown, which is amazing news for those dogs. We actually video interviewed for two other rescues prior to rehoming Otis (shhh, don’t tell him) but unfortunately for us/fortunately for those dogs, a more suitable forever home was found for them in the meantime. Whilst it can be disheartening, it’s great to know just how much effort these charities are putting in to correctly match the right dog with the right home and owners.

A few weeks down the line as I continued my search, this little face popped up on my Facebook feed. He was a rescue puppy waiting in Romania for his forever home, and was found abandoned with his two siblings in a derelict old house at around eight weeks old. Both of his siblings had found their forever homes and were set to travel to the UK, but this one was left behind.

After lots of detailed calls and conversations with the charity New Moon Romanian Rescue, we were approved to adopt Otis (then called Cuddles) and we started making arrangements for him to travel to the UK.

Otis arrived with us on Sunday 14th June.

Whilst the last ten days have been a whirlwind, Otis has really started to settle and is gaining confidence each and every day. I am so, so proud of him and even in this short space of time, I can hand on heart say that rescuing this little dog has been the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. Spending time with him and seeing the love he has to give (I’ve never known a more cuddly dog!) is so heartwarming, and I can’t imagine him living life back in a Romanian shelter now he’s found his spot on our sofa.

His rescue journey has been something I’ve been really vocal about over on Instagram and one I’ll do another blog post about in the next few weeks, but for today, I just wanted to pop on to give you an idea of where the Murphy family (now three of us!) are at.

Hope everyone is keeping well & enjoying the sunshine!