My Rescue Dogs (and how I cope living with their cuteness)

Hello everyone! For this post I am going to be talking about my two little squidgy, fluffy bundles of fun (my dogs haha). I have had pets pretty much all of my life, first a cat, then a hamster, fish and now two dogs and I honestly could not imagine life without a non-human being in the house.

My first dog we have had for the last six years and he is white, fluffy and a complete nutcase. Below is a picture of him- he is our gorgeous Herbie, we think that he is a West Highland Terrier mixed with something else white and fluffy.

We actually rescued Herbie from life as a street dog in Turkey and in 2012 my Mum flew there to bring him back on a transport with NINE DOGS AND A CAT. Like what even how does that happen. But anyway after about a week of Herbie and my Mum driving across Europe, he arrived safely home on the 21st October and ever since he has been our lovely little fluff ball. You wouldn't believe it but the first time I saw him he was orange! My family never actually thought that we would be able to keep Herbie his true white colour but somehow we have managed it and he is a kind of whiteish- light grey colour (he was never going to be pure white now was he). He also looks like a bit of a polar bear-sheep cross breed at the moment because we grow his hair out for the winter months, which means by February I will be able to give him little bunchies which is always super cute.

Herbie is always up to something and is a gorgeous dog with the kindest nature although he hates people who come to the front door and can be a little bit growly when he does meet someone for the first time and so for some reason people just don't see just how lovely he is. He is also great to snuggle when it gets cold and he prefers to be with humans over other fluffy creatures which honestly I can't relate to haha.

Then my second dog is a little girl- or princess rather- who we refer to as Rosie (or Rosie Posie or Princess or pain in the arse) who also has the sweetest nature though it is always on her terms and not yours. She is really more cat-like and will take food over any human contact where possible. Below is a picture of her, we think that she is a mix between a Jack Russell and a Spitz (because of her tail) with a bit of fox and meerkat thrown in for good measure.

Rosie was a street rescue from Serbia where she was actually in a high kill shelter- a really terrible place which no dog should be subjected to. We know only of one occasion of Rosie's mistreatment which was when she was spayed without an anaesthetic... Absolutely disgusting I know. As a result of her time in this shelter she can still be very nervous and fragile at times which is completely understandable but she does know that she will always be safe with us and well fed too! We have had Rosie for just over five years now (we got her on the 12th November 2013) and I honestly love her to bits.

She's pretty territorial so is not a big fan of other dogs coming into the house and she loves her home comforts- a true princess in her own rights. I like to give my dogs voices and imagine what they would be thinking at any given moment and I imagine Rosie to be super judgemental though in reality she is probably only nice and lovely as her behaviour normally shows.

I don't know about you but I would love to be able to have a proper chat with my dogs, just to get their opinions on things and see what they actually think of me. That would be great so if anyone's looking to invent something just watch the dogs in Up then hit me up :)

So now for the ultimate question, Why rescue dogs? In my family we have a pretty strict no breeder policy. I was raised with the attitude that if you wanted a pet then there were already plenty of them at shelters who maybe have not had the best start in life and it was always better to save one of them than to go out searching for a specific breed or a puppy. In my personal experience dogs that have been rescued are generally nicer and more appreciative than dogs that have been adopted straight from the breeder.

The animals that are at rescue shelters are not there because they have done something wrong, it is normally just a case of they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. As for Herbie and Rosie who were both rescues from outside the UK you could argue that my family could have gone to our local RSPCA shelter and just saved ourselves the trouble by getting a dog from there. But our argument for that is that in Turkey and Serbia (where we got our dogs from) they are not as kind to their animals as we are in the UK. On the whole dogs are seen as dirty and are not really allowed into people's homes. So by choosing the dogs that we did we have effectively saved them from either being put down or from suffering even more than they already have.

My attitude when adopting animals will always be the same: You may not be saving the world by adopting a rescue, but you are changing the world for that one animal who will never live the same way again and that will always be a worthwhile cause for me.

Thank you so much for reading this post and I hope to see you again here very soon.

Lots of Love,

Glitter in the Grey xx