Introducing the newest furry member of our family – Mummascribbles

We always knew we wanted a dog. It was never a question of if, but when. Now in all honestly, we were initially going to wait until after the wedding next year. But as I am a very impatient person, I am always on the lookout.

We have always wanted to re-home rather than buy a puppy from a breeder. There are so many dogs needing homes, it seems so silly to pay stupid amounts of money on one. That said, I initially really wanted a Cockapoo. But they don’t pop up as rescues very often, and to buy a pup is like a grand, which is just ridiculous. And then there is the problem that here in the UK, it is really hard to find a centre that re-homes to families with young children. Every single time I looked anywhere, the requirement was older children. Which basically left us unable to re-home a dog. I was therefore looking into puppies from breeders and working out what we wanted, how much they were, and who to go to because there are so many horrible stories of puppy farming.

So when I saw an old colleague of mine had recently re-homed a little dog, and with the knowledge that she has kids around the same age as my boys, I immediately asked her where she re-homed him from – she lives in Hertfordshire too, so I thought it might be somewhere local. Well, I wouldn’t exactly say it was local, in fact, it wasn’t even in this Country! But it’s all how I found out about Street Hearts BG.

Street Hearts BG is in Bulgaria. Run by a British couple who moved out there and were horrified by the number of dogs who were living on the streets, they ended up starting a neutering programme to try and curb the problem, and this in turn, moved to them starting a re-homing centre. Their home is amazing. They have huge areas for the dogs to run around, they go for daily walks through fields and over hay bales, and they are just so utterly loved and looked after. I immediately knew that this re-homing centre was a special one – even though it is a fair way away.

Street Hearts work alongside a couple of re-homing centres over here, and one of them, Wild At Heart Foundation, had a dog for adoption from Street Hearts that I fell a bit in love with. He was looking to be a rather large dog though and he also had a lot of interest, so he was snapped up before we had time to really decide. So back to the Street Hearts Facebook page I went, and just a couple of weeks later, they had a bunch of new puppies ready for reserving. And my oh my they were gorgeous! I sent the photos to the other half and as we had agreed that if I was really ready for one and would take responsibility for it, I could go ahead and get one – I got in touch with them.

I set up a video call with a pup called Joey. He was gorgeous, the boys loved him, and we thought he was going to be the one – even though we knew someone else was interested in him too. However, soon after our call, Emma, the owner of Street Hearts sent me a message to say she was a bit concerned that Joey was a bit too timid for our family (which we all know can be a bit crazy!). She suggested that maybe his brother Chandler might be better. More confident and bouncy, and likely to be much better with the kids. So we met him and boom – that was it.

A bit later on I put a deposit on him and for the last month we have been receiving updates with how his lead training is going, along with photos and videos of him. And then we got the firm details of their next trip to the UK with our little pup on board!

It takes them three days to make their journey over – driving the whole way over. I was added to a Whatsapp group with the other rescuers, and we have had so many journey updates, videos of them all, pictures of the view throughout their journey, along with access to the GPS tracker which tells us exactly where they are on route. On Thursday night, as they were well on their approach to Calais, we were getting the final bits ready. The crate was put up for him, the beds and blankets came out, and the boys were so bloody excited – as were we. For I was due to go and pick him up from our nearest service station around midday on Friday.

They were a bit delayed but I was tracking them on their journey and arrived at the service station at about 1pm – just as they were parking up! I got out of the car, and there were another couple also picking their new puppy up – and it turned out they live just down the road from us!

And then I met him. Originally called Chandler, but now our Buster. And they handed him to me and I fell in love! He is just gorgeous.

After we had exchanged all puppy details, it was time to head home. I popped him in the boot (easier said than done), and drove the half an hour back – some of it in torrential rain – and every now and then I would pull over to check on him! He was a pretty good traveller really, but I think we were both relieved to get home. I then took him inside, introduced him to Oscar and my Mum, and then when Zach came home, he met the little fella too!

So there we have it. We have ourselves a dog. The cat isn’t keen yet, Buster is seriously attached to me and has major separation anxiety, but general training is going pretty well! I am sure I will write a full update as to how our first days/weeks have gone with the little fella!