Well, you try to talk about the serious things that impact women in midlife and…..what really gets a conversation going is whether dogs are allowed in the bedroom or not!
Dogs in the bedroom – yay or nay?
In our house, it’s a big fat NAY. Unless they’re being sent upstairs to wake our son on a school day – he might give it the swears if I go in his room first thing in the morning, but even he can’t get cross with a dog that’s desperate to shower affection on its owners.
As a result of our policy, we have a stairgate in place. Given that it’s a bit wobbly, and works on compression (but only just), it is likely this is going to bite us on the arse one day in the form of someone crashing drunkenly through it. In which case the whole house will wake up and the dogs will go wherever they like. But, given I’ve reached the age where I do not want to be woken by anything before 6:30am unless I’m going on holiday, the stairgate stays. Surely everyone else agrees?
Having posed the question of whether other people feel this way on my public Facebook page, I was met with a veritable barrage of “Yes to dogs in the bedroom!”. This made me feel like a bad dog owner, so I thought I’d ask some of my closer friends.
Just say “no”
At first, people came to my rescue with definite “No, we do not allow our dogs in the bedrooms” and even “Not on the sofas too” (understandable when the person in question’s dog weighs 60kg..). But this was to be short-lived as the yay-ers came out in force, sharing photos of their whippets curled up under duvets and vizla’s going for a bold spreadeagle on top of the bed. The nay-ers were ambushed – and charmingly so.
Enter the King!
And then I was reminded of a post I wrote aaaaaages ago where I reflected on how some people’s pets had more Facebook friends than I did (you can find it in my book ‘Reasons to be Cheerful, Part One’ which is available here. The reason? Well, I was sent the picture that you see at the top of this blog of King Nigel (yes, he does have his own Facebook account) in his custom-built, beautifully appointed house within a house. I mean, if you’re going to build your dog a property then why not do it properly!
Dogs and midlife
In recording the episode of the podcast today, I wasn’t sure how this was going to relate to midlife – and then I found it.
For those of us whose children are teenagers or have fled the nest; for those of us who are dealing with all the difficult shit that midlife brings; for those of us who find ourselves on our own, dogs actually are the best. Loving, companionable, non-judgemental. A living, breathing being who greets us with delight when we get home, will cuddle up on the sofa (assuming they’re allowed) and with whom we’re allowed to use a ‘special voice’.
The intimacy of a special voice
In a moment of absolute middle-class ridiculousness, the Ocado driver (I know, I know) not only correctly identified our breed of dog (some people get PROPER precious about this – just try asking a Wheaten Terrier owner if their dog is a cockapoo….or if their Vizsla is a Fox Red and see what you get) he also used his dog voice. “Oh yes, hello, hello-hello, who’s a lovely boy? Yes you are, yes you are!” I felt like this was a pretty intimate exchange…or maybe that’s just me.
Listen to the full episode
If you are a ‘dog person’ or if you want to hear my ‘special voice’ then here’s the full episode for you to listen to. And if you’re not, well maybe just skip this and join me tomorrow where I promise we won’t talk about dogs 😉
A dog song…
I’m also reminded of a silly song I recorded in lockdown about dogs so why not check it out here:
