
Joie de Vivre – Little Monkey
Joie de Vivre!
Do you wanna play now, Mum?
How about NOW?
Little Monkey, nine years going on two. Full of life and boundless energy. Always ready for a game.
She was born in a rescue centre, from a rescued pregnant female. Adopted as a puppy by students, she was returned at eighteen months as the new place they moved to did not allow dogs. There is no stigma attached to this. If you can no longer care for the dog, please take it back to the rescue organisation, where it will be cared for until they can re-home it.
I’ve no doubt they loved her; threw the ball round the garden for her; had her sterilised and vaccinated. She was certainly never abused. But a dog like Little Monkey, of such an anxious, unbalanced nature, needed more than that. She needed exercise; such as daily walks round the area; and discipline; such as sitting quietly while waiting, not leaping in the air.
She has been, and continues to be, my most difficult dog. A simple walk is exhausting. In the beginning, she freaked out at everything; a bag full of grass clippings; a motorbike, parked and silent; something present, or absent, that was or wasn’t there on yesterday’s walk. And the dogs!! Seven years of taking her every week to socialise with 20 to 30 dogs all loose on a field and she still freaks out and leaps in the air when passing a dog on a walk. This is what happens to unbalanced dogs if they are unsocialised until eighteen months old.
From her I learnt patience. A lesson she teaches me over and over, all day, every day.
But, she has an endearing puppy-like quality that will never disappear. She is always ready for fun, always excited to see you again, and she does not bite! It could be worse.
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