Wheelistically @ Claire.NU

To those unini­ti­ated in the joys of adopt­ing a res­cue hound, a “Gotcha Day” is the anniversary of the day your hound finally set paw in his/her “Forever Home”. Many cel­eb­rate the Gotcha Day in lieu of a birth­day as many res­cue dogs come with very little or no inform­a­tion about their past, with their age often gues­tim­ated by the state of their teeth.

As Ziggy was a product of the racing industry (com­plete with ear tat­toos), we are able to know his exact date of birth and we duly cel­eb­rated his third birth­day just over a fort­night ago. How­ever, I still wanted to mark this spe­cial day.

Giv­ing Ziggy a Forever Home has been one of the best things I have ever done. Whilst hav­ing a lov­ing fam­ily and a warm home full of blankets and treats and belly rubs has undoubtedly improved Ziggy’s qual­ity of life, what I didn’t account for was how it would enrich mine.

My dogs are my world, they bring me com­fort when I’m down, they never ever fail to make me laugh and they remind me that there is always enough time to stop what I’m doing and play — if only for a few moments. Hav­ing taught me untold les­sons about trust, patience and uncon­di­tional love, they have also renewed my appre­ci­ation for the simple, but ulti­mately import­ant things in life. After all, to be warm in your bed with your belly full and curled up with the ones you love is all any­one ever really needs at the end of a day — regard­less of whether you’re human or can­ine.

Ziggy, our hand­some, quiet, ever-so-gentle Good Boy — I hope you’ve enjoyed your first year at The Little Down­stairs House as much as we’ve enjoyed hav­ing you here — we wouldn’t be without you.