2020

Hi everyone - and Happy New Year! I've always liked the New Year and the promise it gives of a fresh start - and this one is even better than usual. 2020 is the start of a new decade too and seems to be to be a real opportunity for a new, enthusiastic approach. It's all in the mind, I know...

We are expecting a new arrival in our household today. The pitter patter of small claws on the laminate flooring...we're adopting a new dog. On the face of it, this is a foolish move since we have three dogs already - and I must admit that the prospect of taking on another worries me a little. But I heard about her through a friend - she's only eleven months old and her current family aren't coping and are brave enough to pass her on in the hope that she'll have a better life.

Once I saw her photo I was lost. She's so beautiful. 'We'll have her!' I clamoured. Paul, to my surprise, was in full agreement - we can't leave her there, he said (her current family love her but both parents have to work and they have a toddler so she's crated a lot of the time). Our youngest was delighted - he adores all dogs - so once we'd told him we were getting another, there was no going back.

On the bright side, she's only a small dog. She's a Cavalier King Charles spaniel and we already have two of those, aged 10 and 6, plus a 13 month old Cavalier crossed with a cockapoo (part poodle, part cocker spaniel) so the new dog will fit in just fine.

We know the breed. Our eldest dog has heart problems so we've learned how to cope with that over the last year - most Cavaliers as they age, sadly, will develop a heart murmur and eventually go into heart failure. It's soul destroying to witness, but all dog breeds have their susceptibilities.

One argument in favour of cross breeds is that they'll live longer and be less susceptible to health issues - I take great pleasure looking at our youngest, knowing that she'll go on for so many years - but I still think it would be a great loss to the world not to have Cavaliers, Great Danes, Dalmations and so on...

Anyway, enough about doggy matters. I'm well aware of what I'm doing here, by the way. Four children, growing up fast (the eldest at Uni, the next due to go, hopefully, this October) - four dogs, to replace them. More beings for me to look after as my darlings are leaving the nest...

But still, why not? They keep us healthy - all the walks, plus there's always new evidence that it's good for kids to grow up with dogs. Most of the research centres on the advantages to their immune systems, but the latest one I read in The Times a couple of weeks ago says that children are less likely to develop schizophrenia if they grow up with a dog in the household.

Which is ridiculous. As we know (or readers of this blog should be aware) 'schizophrenia' is a construct anyway - and think about it, kids who grow up in households with animals are just more likely to be relaxed (due to the comfort of having a furry body to stroke and unconditional love to give and receive) and more likely to get exercise and so on and so forth. Of course they are likely to have less emotional issues.

Unless, of course, all the financial resources in the household are consumed by an excess of dogs. Whoops. But no, we'll manage. Our eldest dog is currently on lots of medication and requires constant trips to the vet, but that won't go on for much longer (although actually I really wish it would!) We'll soon be back to a three dog household again.

Also, we have a back-up plan - someone else who is happy to take the new dog on if she doesn't fit into our household. My main concern is that she won't get on with the others - although that's unlikely, because Cavaliers are sociable and particularly like their own breed.

So. I'd better get on with some writing. I'm currently on a roll with that, since it's the New Year and all - I'm making it a priority to get a certain number of words written each day, come what may. Hopefully I'll get the second and third books in the Robyn Walters mystery series out this year. Then I think I'm going to concentrate on children's fiction. I wrote some short children's books quite a while ago and they're selling quite well on Kindle suddenly, in India of all places. I enjoyed writing those, they came to me easily and quickly. So that's my way forward, although if the Robyn Walters series takes off, I'll keep going with that too.

Hopes and dreams.

Happy New Year!

PS
As for my resolutions - mentioned in my last post - I suppose taking on the new dog from her previous owners means that we're doing something for other people (although also for ourselves!).

And I have been listening to more music - I'm still on radio 4 in the car because I'm not so keen on just random music, but I've got to grips with my Spotify account after an intense instruction session from one of the teenagers and started to compile some playlists of things that I like listening to. A lot of the stuff I like is from the eighties. I was a troubled young person back then and the eighties were in many ways my 'lost years', but there were some happy times too and a surprising amount of music amidst the chaos. A lot of the people I spent time with back then were into their 'sounds' and because I didn't have much sense of who I was I tended to just absorb it all though them... It's good to revisit that aspect of my youth and remember that it wasn't all bad. Bye for now.