Today – or yesterday, if you want to be fussy with the minutes, is it on the day 12 years ago me and one of my best friends went to Örebro working dog club to pick up my first, very own puppy. I had the honor of becoming a food host for one of the Swedish Armed Forces' puppies and it was time for delivery. I was super stressed after several days of intense activity, and super nervous – how would it go?
By that time I had wanted a dog for a number of years, but for various reasons not had the opportunity to obtain. The Armed Forces' system of feed hosting is fantastically good in that way – it gives people like me the opportunity to try having a dog, with (depends on, I think, which feed host consultant you have) access to enormous support from them. I was lucky enough to have the honor of becoming a feed host, and I was so incredibly happy on the way home from Örebro, but Ella of the Armed Forces, 8 weeks old, sleeping in my arms.
I do not know exactly what I had expected. It became something completely different, dock. I had never had a dog on my own before, but I had the best feed hosting consultant in the world. I could call her at any time and ask the dumbest questions I could think of, and she helped me through whatever the problem was. It is largely thanks to her that I got Ella in order as much as I did. So many thanks to you, you know who you are. ♥
With the experience I have of the Armed Forces dogs – which in the name of honesty can be said to be “only” She, and the other bitch I was feeding for a while, is not something I would recommend to anyone. The Armed Forces' dogs are elite dogs, there is no talk of that. They are not like other dogs. The mentality and psyche are hard as rebar, and they demand their leader. These are not dogs you can or should not pet with. By that I do not mean that you should be malicious, cruel, evil or something else. But you must not give up, because they have a tendency to take a seat and take for granted if you do not make very clear demands. These are not dogs that suit everyone, no matter how cute they are as puppies.
But I can not to say in words enough how grateful I am to have been able to share my life with Ella. She has taught me so insanely much about living with a dog. She has taught me to set boundaries, to set a hard psyche against a hard psyche (it sounds worse than it actually is – you who have had a tougher dog understand what I mean), the need and necessity of clarity.. and everything I learned from her, I have been able to use in other areas of my life.
It's soon two years ago I lost my Ella, and I'm still mourning. I still have a hard time understanding that she's not here. I wish she and Boyo had met – they had liked each other. Boyo would not have gotten an awl in the air, for Ella would have put him in place before he even came up with the idea of getting an idea of anything. But they would have had a lot of fun together, I am absolutely convinced of that. Which is a lot of fun, because Ella did not get along with very many dogs.
Actually, the headline to this post a lie. Ella and I only got a little over ten years together. But even if she's gone, so I think I will always count her as here. She is in my heart and my memories, in the same way as Saga, Sotis and Zoe (the cats, if you're wondering). The number of years that have passed since we went our separate ways is completely irrelevant. The only difference (which is probably so stressful) is that none of them are with me physically, longer. I can no longer feel the fur under my hands, their warm breath, hear their paws on the floors, and so on. That time is over. But they all come, always, to be with and with me.