Thursday, December 20, 2012

I MADE A NEW FRIEND TODAY

A friend of my husband, whom he worked with many years ago, always calls in to see us at this time of year usually bringing a gift of a bottle of wine.  He came this afternoon and brought Jim with him for a visit.
Yes, Jim is a beautiful golden retriever (in fact he is Jim #3 as Gerard has owned 3 of them now).  In came Jim and immediately lay down right at my feet.  Apparently he is quite fussy with whom he makes friends so we decided I must give out the right type of pheromones that attract dogs.  Anway, Jim obviously decided I was OK.  I of course began to pat him and stroke his head and every time I stopped I got a nudge from his nose to tell me not to stop doing it.  He is so good that when I said 'No more' he just lay down with his head resting on my bare foot.

We once had a golden retriever.  Emma was 7 when she came to us and we had her till she was 12 when she was so ill she had to be put to sleep.  She too was a beautiful dog and Jim bought back such lovely memories of her.
Gerard is a great bloke and we are always so pleased to have him visit but it was a double bonus today to have Jim along as well.  They stayed for about 90 minutes and I fell in love with this beautiful dog.

We are far too old now to own a large dog as they do need a daily walk.  I can't walk far and although MOH's heart is always in the right place I just know he'd not be able to walk day after day no matter how good his intentions were to begin with.

We are both hoping Gerard will call again, sooner rather than later, and if he brings Jim for another visit they will both be very welcome.

FOOTNOTE:  Gerard will never let us give him anything but last year while visiting us he mentioned that he had to buy some tea-towels (he is a bachelor).  Many years ago I used to collect tea-towels and even exchange them occasionally with penfriends.  I remembered I had a very large pile of brand new tea-towels so I brought them out and chose two that had dogs on them and gave them to Gerard.  This year I did the same thing and two more tea-towels have found a new home.  I have had most of this tea-towel collection for over 25 years now but they are nearly all made of linen and of course are still brand new.  Gerard went off happily clutching the new additions to his kitchen.  It has been great to find something that he wants.


4 comments:

  1. How lovely to meet a new friend!
    I've always liked Golden Retrievers and planned on having one if I ever owned enough yard space again. The plan was to have the kids and grandkids do the daily walking for me.
    Now I'm planning on a cat from the animal shelter instead.

    I owned a couple of linen teatowels years ago, I'd bought them for my hope chest, but found they didn't dry any dishes very well until they'd been washed (the towels) about a hundred times. They just were not absorbent. I've had other,(cotton), teatowels that did the same.

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    Replies
    1. Yes they are delightful animals and so loving.
      Now our dog days are long past we do have a cat that we got from the Cat haven 11 years ago this month and she is a great friend. I am a cat lover so that satisfies me but I know MOH still would love a dog.
      The linen tea--towels I have seem to dry dishes quite OK once they have been washed. I must admit though I have some REAL old cotton tea-towels that are still good. I used to buy a calendar tea-towel each year and still have some from the 1980s. Amazing but true. They mainly get hung in the laundry now to dry the cat's dishes.

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  2. And what a beautiful friend to have. They have the softest ears and the most melting eyes. And in my experience are bottomless pits where food is concerned - theirs and everyone elses.
    How nice to have just the right gift to give Gerard. I expect it made you just as happy as him to have found a gift he likes, wants and needs. Yay Mimsie.

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  3. I am still feeling quite euphoric after meeting Jim. I know the memory is going to linger for quite a while.
    I remember with Emma we had to watch what she eat as her previous owner fed her lots of cake and biscuits.
    Yes it was great to find something that Gerard needed as we always felt bad when he left empty handed.
    Good things do happen sometimes. :)

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