Polly - The New Addition to the Family!

I would like to take this opportunity to tell you that we have welcomed Polly into our home! She is a pretty, brindle and white Staffordshire Bull Terrier (Staffie). She shares the same birthday as my Mom, December 1st. This makes her about 15 weeks old.

She has come to us through Northern Staffordshire Bull Terrier Rescue (NSBTR). I had researched the breed and decided that perhaps this would a very suitable breed for us. What we needed was a dog that would:
Keep me company in the car as I drive around SW Scotland.
Not chase our neighbour's sheep
Not eat the cat or chickens or rabbit
Not embarrass my husband by being a Bichon Frise or some other "yapper type dog"
Be completely reliable with children - the children at Whitelees have grown to become adults and have gone OR in the case of George, quite sensible but I have some friends with very small children and they should be able to visit without fear.

I talked over our requirements with the guy who runs NSBTR out of Cumbria (The English Lake District to you Yankees) - not that far south from us. He said that even though Staffies can be a bit crap with cats, if we got a young one it could be trained not to eat the cat.

So, on Sunday as I was driving across to Tynemouth to finish up my diving course, I had a call from NSBTR about one of the dogs they had for adoption. It was a very young one they had called "Lucy". I had seen the photo on the website and indeed had pointed her out to The Man of the Place. The woman at the rescue asked me a few further questions that weren't on my original application form. I must have answered them correctly as she then said that someone would be calling me to set up a home visit.

We had the home visit early on Friday morning before work and got the thumbs up. They won't give a dog that needs re-homing to just anybody. There are a few criteria that must be met. You have to have an enclosed garden to start and then you have to be a sensible type of person (fooled the inspector on that one). There is an agreement that this pup will get neutered when she's old enough. If, for any reason we can no longer care for her, we must return her to NSBTR. They retain ownership of Polly but kindly let us keep her at Whitelees.

After work, I collected George and off we went for the almost two hour drive into darkest Cumbria to get her. When we got there, we met Polly, immediately became besotted with her, filled out more forms, activated the puppy insurance, and bundled her into the car. We now have a piddling, chewing beautiful brindle Staffordshire Bull Terrier puppy. Polly has some work to do. She needs to learn about peeing outside, not chewing on things. She needs to learn about walking on a lead (leash). I am now going to go and get dressed and take Polly on her first walk to greet her public.



Where is my breakfast??