Our family might be about to grow...

No, not a baby - let's get that straight right now!

Not that it wouldn't be fun, of course...

But, no. Let's start again.

Saturday morning I had a rude awakening - the phone was ringing.  It as Mrs RC.  She had taken Custard, Spot and Bryn for a walk and on returning found some of my dad's neighbours with an old, apparently lost, Golden Retriever.

He was well fed (if hungry at this time), not frightened (so not used be being hit) and enjoyed a game of tug of war, but he had been given a rather rough home-done haircut and fresh hair growth suggested a recent skin problem.

All were worried about him but would not take him into their houses - what if his skin problem is catching?

Ah well, Mrs RC and I are willing to take him in for a while.

Custard liked him, which was good, so we took him home, gave him some treats, a bath, a brush etc, and soon he looked like a new dog - although his hair cut still looked a bit strange.

While he settled on a temporary bed and chewed one of Custard's chews, I contacted the local vet.  No missing Retievers reported, but they would be happy to scan him to see if he had a micro chip.

Off we went (the local vet is around 2 miles away).  He enjoyed the walk.  We saw lots of dog owners but none recognised him. 

The vet scanned him - yes there was a micro chip but after 4-5 phone calls it was clear that the chip was old and the data hand not been updated recently, so we would have to wait until Monday before anyone could access the data archive.  No problem, we would look after Henry (as we had named him) until then.  If it was not possible to find his owners we said we would keep him.

Half way home my phone rang.  Someone had just called to report a missing Retriever.

Turned out he came from the house right next to my dad - they have only just moved in, which is why no one recognised the dog!  He was very happy to get home again and the owners seemed like nice people, so everyone lived happily ever after.


But do you see where this is going?

For some time now I have been resisting pressure to get another dog, but now my defence has been smashed beyond salvation! My wife and daughter spent most of Sunday using our new internet connection to search for dogs that need to be rescued.  My daughter said that this is what she wants for Christmas.

Got a text from Mrs RC this morning:  "I think I have found some puppies."

Plural.  Did you see that?

We might have a very interesting Christmas by the look of things...