About two years ago we started to notice that our children were nervous and sometimes even afraid around other dogs. It’s really strange because we have a dog at home and they are around it every day. We would teach them to have a healthy respect of dogs but we encouraged the contact when possible.
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About a year ago, Nama, my guide dog had a few negative encounters with other dogs. He was attacked a few times by loose dogs and after a few of these encounters, he decided that he would attack before they attacked him.
We decided a year ago that we would get another dog as a pet. It makes sense. Nama gets ongoing exposure to another dog and so too do the children. The pup will also help with keeping Nama engaged with everyone in the house and more mobile. When the pup gets attention, Nama joins in. It’s great because he was enjoying his bed a little too much.
Enter stage left Réalta. She’s a Lurcher pup that’s now about 12 weeks old. Her father is a Greyhound Collie cross. Her mother is a Greyhound Collie Whippet cross.
Back in August, I was talking to a friend during Music at the Gate. I mentioned that we were actively looking for a lurcher but the right one. We had visited a few dogs but hadn’t found the right temperament. I didn’t know that the man I was talk to actually bread lurchers! He promised me that he would find a breeding pair that he would trust to provide a really great pup with the temperament that we were looking for. Four months later I get a call to tell me that the pup was ready and it would be dropped off a few weeks later.
Réalta arrived a few weeks before Christmas. She’s getting on really well. Oh Réalta for anyone who doesn’t speak Irish is the word star. Because Réalta is one of the best traditional groups ever and star because…. you know…… Christmas, stars, all that kind of stuff.
So here’s the thing. Pups are nuts! Crazy! Wild! Untamed! We should have called her zoom because she has two speeds. Stop and zoom! Or maybe bounce because sometimes she stops, zooms then bounces off the fridge, a door or a wall. IT’s kind of funny. She flies through the house, through the living room, out through the hall, into the kitchen and tries to make a slight left adjustment to avoid the corner of the fridge. Sometimes she doesn’t quite make it though and there’s a crash followed by a tiny whimper. Sometimes she over compensates and her four paws go from under her and she slides across the floor for a second until she rights herself. It’s really funny. It doesn’t bother her of course. Two seconds later she’s off zooming around the place again without a care in the world.
It was great getting a new pup right before Christmas. It added to the energy in the house over our favourite time of the year. It was also nice that I was off for about two and a half weeks so I got to spend a lot of time with her. But now the fun begins. We’re establishing a more rigid routine now that we’re back to our normal daily activities. Getting up in the morning is now a crazy blur of craziness. I remember the days when I’d have a few minutes to get up, grab some breakfast and a cup of coffee, take a leisurely shower, sort out Nama then head to work. Now it’s something like this:
*. Get up.
Go down stairs
Turn the alarm off
Nama jumps out of bed. I tell him to settle quietly.
I grab Réalta from her bed
I bring her outside because if I leave her for any time at all, she’ll pee on the floor.
When she’s peed I let Nama then relieve himself and I try to get dog food ready. While I’m doing that, Réalta goes zooming around the garden. I need to go grab her then rush back so Nama doesn’t manage to get to the food before I do.
I feed Nama then bring Réalta to eat. If I don’t have both food bowls prepared quick enough, both dogs will make too much noise. Nama will start dancing and Réalta will start crying and barking.
Both dogs eat. Then it’s back outside to the dog run but it takes some convincing. I bring Réalta in but she needs some convincing to relieve herself. She finally finishes then I sort out Nama.
After I’ve sorted Nama out I go find Réalta again. She’s gone zooming around the garden again so I have to go find her again. Then Nama does the same so I have to talk to him nicely so he comes back as well.
I go inside and start to make breakfast. Meanwhile I’m talking to Nama so he has attention and I’m occasionally distracting Réalta from playing with my laptop case, the swim bag that Emma has out in preparation for today, the bottom of the kitchen chairs and everything else that has caught her attention in that millisecond.
By the time I’ve had breakfast and had a coffee, I’m wrecked! I get into the shower, rush to get dressed then fly out the door glad to go to work for a break for a few hours.
I pity Emma then because she has Réalta still zooming around the house and two children to get ready for school.
It’s just nuts!
But I wouldn’t trade her though. The children are really enjoying having the pup around and Nama is a lot more sociable.
Another Christmas is over. Christmas is my favourite time of the year. I hate the marketing side of things. But fortunately we very rarely have a television on in this house and when we do, we tend to stick to streaming services such as Netflix so advertisements have minimal impact on our household. The reason I enjoy Christmas is it’s always a great opportunity to spend far too much time with family and friends. I say far too much time because invariably we gravitate to a particular house each year. Recently it’s because Méabh and Rían are getting enjoyment from the other children in that house. I hear some people say that after the hype leading up to Christmas they are just tired of it and within a few days they don’t know what to do. I’ve never found that. I managed to take just over two weeks off this year. I spent a lot of time with the children, the dogs and my wife. I also got to spend about two days working on things that I wanted to spend time on. I could easily spend another two weeks doing the same. No day is boring. There’s always something to be done, someone to visit or somewhere interesting to travel to. IT’s the lack of defined things to do that makes Christmas so enjoyable for me.
Tomorrow, I’m back to work, the children are back to school and life will return to normal. I’m reasonably okay with that. There are a few things that I want to get stuck into in work and I’m looking forward to ramping up the music side of things in anticipation of the Fleadh in Drogheda in August. It’s going to be a busy 8 months until the next decent block of time off. It’s an eight months where I’ll have a lot to do but if I play my cards right, the hard work will be rewarding and the commitment will pay off.
Anyway, getting to the point of all this, the Cobblestone session was as inviting as always. As soon as I walked in the door, a stool was presented and I was welcomed in. The tunes were slow which wouldn’t usually be my style but I enjoy the change so I settled in for a few hours of tunes, stories and craic.
Back to the music. Toales was just getting started when I arrived shortly after ten. But already powerful musicians Andrew Kelly, Graine Smyth, Finien O’Connor and Feargal Mcardle were starting a set. Again I was warmly welcomed and the tunes flowed. About half an hour Sean Conway joined giving an already powerful session another boost. Shortly after that Oisin McCann joined. Then Tadhg Mulligan walked in around 12am and of course a seat materialized and he was promptly told to sit down and play a few tunes. There were others there as well. Caoimhe on the fiddle, Keili on the accordion and more on flutes and fiddles. It was just an amazing night of tunes. Tunes that I’d never dream in weird time signatures like 7 8 were encouraged and enjoyed.
