Welcome To One Frazzled Dog
I thought my first post on this blog should be one introducing myself and what I have learned in my crazy 14 months as a dog owner. There are many places I should start, but I think I should prefix this by saying I wasn’t a dog person until I was a dog person. And this little post is my story of how I went from being indifferent to dogs and not wanting a pet to not even being bothered that I can’t leave the house or even eat any food without the presence of a dog’s hair.
Who Am I?
Firstly, my name is Tracey, and I live on the Wirral with my daughter Olivia. For Olivia’s 16th birthday in 2022, all she wanted was a dog. Her dad has a dog, Charlie, his mum had a dog, RIP gorgeous Lacey, and the previous year, one of my sisters got the most insane pug, Milo.
I wasn’t sold. After all, having a dog was like having a baby in that it changed your life completely, and unlike a baby, you can’t just whip your dog into a pram and take it around Asda with you for the weekly shop. Pretty sure this is frowned on and all kinds of illegal. So having a pet would mean a lot of adjustments and changes to a life where we were pretty much able to do what we wanted when we wanted.
But she was adamant, and so the onslaught began. It was all she talked about, all she wanted. In all honesty, I was running out of reasons why we shouldn’t and ideas on what else to get her.
I know buying dogs for birthday presents is a big no-no, but she would be 16, not a child, and she knew what owning a dog entails thanks to her dad, Nana and Auntie.
Adopt or Rescue
Eventually, I agreed on one condition. The condition was we would rescue, not buy a puppy; in fact, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to rescue a puppy. I knew nothing about dogs or raising them or training them. Absolutely zilch.
And so it began. Picture after picture, adoption profile after profile. My WhatsApp filled up with dog pictures, and we became regular visitors to Dogs Trust.
Genuinely, I thought my chances of being accepted for a rescue dog were slimmer than the UK finally winning Eurovision. However, we proceeded down this route anyway. I forget now the dog we wanted, but we submitted applications for some dogs. I know it would be a long shot. You need to be suitable for the dog in question and be vetted, and so on. So when the search began in late 2021, I didn’t hold my breath, and we carried on.
Then came 2022. Olivia got covid precisely 12 months after I first caught it, and we were stuck at home, no one in, no one out, not that we needed to, and then it happened.
We got a call from a Merseyside number, and lo and behold, it was Dogs Trust Merseyside. We had applied a few days prior for a gorgeous-looking 12-year-old beagle called Tegan. She looked like an absolute “Karen” in her images, and we were told she was a delightful old girl who was very particular about things and simply wanted a sofa to sleep on. Don’t we all love, don’t we all? An appointment was made to meet her that weekend. And meet her we did.
We met Tegan Saturday, and she came home Sunday. We were smitten, and pretty soon, I was 1000% a dog person, and “dog mum” became my whole personality. But it seemed Tegan wasn’t the dog we thought we were getting, and she had some very complex issues that only came to light upon coming home. She had numerous health issues, including a herniated disc, and her stomach didn’t empty properly, meaning she was sick a lot. We were frequent flyers at the vets.
Life With Tegan
Life with Tegan was hard; I won’t sugarcoat it. She had dog reactivity issues; she couldn’t be around kids, she was quick to snap at people, and she had food-guarding issues. It was a lot for new dog owners, and we struggled through the best we could do and what we thought was in her best interests, alongside guidance from Dogs Trust behaviourists.
Sadly, Tegan passed away in her sleep in February 2023. She was waiting for tests to determine the source of some blood-filled lumps on her neck and face, and despite being in the best of spirits that weekend and finally feeling like we were making good progress, it was to be her final weekend with us.
We changed our lives and our routines, we did everything to make her feel happy, relaxed and loved, and we hope we gave her the best last year of her life.
The next few days were strange. We grieved, we spent hours outside of the house not wanting to come home, and we ventured back up to Dogs Trust. Which, to be honest, is always a bad idea as I always want to jailbreak the dogs and bring them all home. Even the day after Tegan passed, when we drove up to donate some of her food and unused toys, I still wanted to kidnap a dog.
Moving On
We spoke to one of the Home From Home team at Dogs Trust to enquire about potentially fostering when we felt ready. And in the initial days post losing Tegan, I swung from needing a new dog now and never wanting a dog ever again. My heart was broken. So we didn’t make any hard and fast decisions either way.
As I kept visiting Dogs Trust (stalker), I felt drawn to a dog, well, two in particular.
Sophie and Elsa were mum and daughter beagles (see a theme here) and had been there since October. When we first saw them on the website, we had Tegan, and there was no way she would live with a dog. She was massively aggressive towards other dogs.
But I said to Olivia I felt like they needed us, and they were meant to be ours. And in February, they were both still there. After talking to staff, we learnt they were being separated as Sophie, 10 (mum) had a few health issues and needed long-term foster care, while Elsa, 8 was good to go to be adopted. Plus, they reached a point when separating them was in their best interests.
Me and Sophie Sophs
As you can imagine, one thing led to another, and our fostering application got submitted, and somehow, we got accepted. After all, we had masses of experience with high-maintenance beags and all the drama they bring with them. So up, we went one more time to meet the Home From Home team and meet the girl herself.
Backtracking slightly, the girls had shown no interest in being “wooed”, so to speak, by visitors from their kennel, so it was anyone’s guess as to how this would go.
But after taking her for a walk in the centre, I loved her; Olivia was smitten, and we agreed to take her on as the new foster carer. After all, what was the worst that could happen?
Right Now!
This leads us to now. To me, setting up a brand new dog blog and everything. Why a dog blog? Well, if you didn’t already know, I have been blogging for around 9 years now, and I own a host of “frazzled” blogs. One Frazzled Mum, One Frazzled Fibro, One Frazzled Fiction and now One Frazzled Dog. I also write at bizbreakdown.com too.
I wanted a dog blog as I spent a lot of time, and still do, googling answers to questions I have, and I know I am not alone. Plus, I wanted to share stories and details I learned on my journey as a foster carer too.
There is so much to know and learn and appreciate about dogs that I felt if I posted it all on my main blog, which is One Frazzled Mum, it might take over, hence One Frazzled Dog.
On here, I will likely post personal tales and generic posts with tips and general dog information too. I want to talk about my experiences and share tips and tricks and everything in between.
I also want to encourage others to foster or adopt rescue dogs. I genuinely believe everyone who is in the position to adopt a dog from a rescue should. But I also believe that rescuing isn’t for everyone, and you should be fully informed of the pros and cons before making your decision. But considering adopting shouldn’t be something you automatically rule out due to preconceived ideas and misconceptions.
If you have made it this far, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy our journey.
