I’m so over that boy… not!!

Snip’s folks Jan and Alain are fostering a young black Lurcher called Freda who is by all accounts a nymphomaniac, and – somewhat unsurprisingly – she has been fully accepted into Snip’s crew. Pearl is insanely jealous, and the first time she met Freda she went into monster mode. Result: Freda is terrified of her. This makes it impossible for Snip and Freda to come here for playdates while their humans are out, and impossible for us to go to Snip’s while Annabelle is out.

Fortunately, plans are afoot to resolve the situation. The other day we went to Oxwich Bay with Jan’s pack to see if Pearl could learn to behave in a civilised manner around Freda. It went surprisingly well, though Freda refused to be photographed (you can just see her nose and front paw on the far right as she backed out of shot). I think she must have self esteem issues, as she is painfully shy with strange dogs – though any dog would be wary of Pearl when she’s on one.

I do understand how Pearl feels, because I found it hard to watch Snip and Freda doing zoomies up and down the beach and disappearing into the dunes. I tried to act cool but I couldn’t keep it up, and when Snip and I had a moment alone I foolishly tried to rekindle our relationship.

Come on, how about it?

Just one kiss for old time’s sake?

Oh well, it’s your loss

I’m so over that boy

While I sympathise with Pearl, I’m old and wise enough to know that picking on poor Freda won’t help. Nor can I dismiss Snip as a heartless player, because he has a really sweet, caring side. He even does charity work, helping young people build their confidence and cheering up older people in residential homes.

This makes it hard for me to let him go, but he clearly doesn’t feel the same and I’ve just got to suck it up. As Pearl so kindly points out, I’m way too old for him. At my age, I need to forget about romance if I want to keep my dignity. It happens to us all eventually; but it’s a hard fact for any girl to face, especially a girl who’s never had much of a love life. Even when I was young and in season, my only admirers were a lecherous Jack Russell and a geriatric Lab cross, both of whom would have gone with anyone. I was out of their reach – literally – and I didn’t fancy either of them.

Annabelle has pointed out that a dog should live in the moment, that I should let go of the past and focus on more spiritual matters. She keeps quoting some guy called Egghard Troll* who says “acceptance of the unacceptable is the greatest source of grace in this world”. She’d want to practise what she preaches, I see precious little acceptance when something goes wrong in her life. And who is Grace, anyway?

Whoever she is, I’m quite sure she’s no substitute for Snip.

*Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks