Putting the record straight

A Sunday in February, 1993

The sons have friends round to play for the afternoon and I have a veritable mountain of ironing waiting so husband offers to take daughter to Toys-R-Us for a game she wants.

I wash the lunch dishes and then settle into the ironing accompanied by the radio.

An hour passes and I begin to wonder what's taking husband and daughter so long - the shop is only 15 minutes drive away.

Another half hour goes by and I'm looking at the clock every five minutes.

By the two-hour mark I'm thinking about calling the hospital. (Yes, I know I'm a worrier with a vivid imagination!)

I'm just folding up my ironing board when I hear the car pulling onto the drive. A few seconds later daughter bursts in.

'Where on earth have you been?' I grumble. 'I was getting worried.'

'Wait till you see what we've got!' she squeaks.

At that husband walks in with a sheepish, slightly anxious look on his face - and a bundle of fluff in his arms!

'Awwww, what is it? Where did you get it? Did you find him? Whose is he?'

'He's ours!' daughter screams. And husband puts him into my arms.

A couple of years earlier we'd acquired a Welsh Border Collie that we'd called Tess. She was lovely with our children but we didn't feel we could trust her completely with other children. Husband worked with someone who owned a smallholding and whose neighbour had recently lost their dog. Tess went to live and work on the farm and last time we saw her she was doing a great job of rounding up cows.

But even though I knew she'd gone to a good home and she wasn't dead, I couldn't stop crying for days! I was so distraught husband said, 'We're never having another dog!'

As the weeks and months passed I started pointing out golden retrievers on the street, on the television, and in For Sale adverts in the paper; husband said, 'No! Never again!'

Then he bought Harvey.

One Christmas he bought me a diamond ring and hid it in a packet of Maltesers; last Christmas he bought Betty, the Beetle, for me (and how Santa got her on the drive without me knowing still puzzles me), and even though those were wonderful presents, there's never been - or ever will be - a present as good as Harvey!

I have tried four times to upload a photo of Tess but Blogger won't let me; I will try again later.