The Luxury Pooch.

Two years ago today we brought home from the animal shelter a scared, skinny, lethargic, flea-infested dog. We were full of hope but not sure what we were getting ourselves into.

That was the day Monty entered our lives, our sweet little west highland terrier, who has become the light of our lives.

Monty's arrival was the realisation of a long-held dream for me; I had wanted my own dog the whole of my adult life. I never hoped to be able to have my own west highland terrier as a puppy costs around NZ$1200. We bought Monty for NZ$30.

He became part of the family almost immediately, and it didn't take much longer before the wounds from his old life had disappeared. Now Monty {also known as Moo} is almost unrecognisable from the dog he once was. He's happy, healthy, confident, friendly, a good guard dog, and he has the most comical little personality.

Everyone who meets Monty loves him. Even children who are scared of dogs will bring themselves to pat him because he's so calm. My mother - who has never been interested in animals - fell head over heels for Monty and now has her own dog who she dotes on!

Like any self-respecting westie, Moo thinks he's the boss of the house. His daddy has nicknamed him The Luxury Pooch because he's developed quite a taste for luxury. The couch is his, the bed is his, our laps are most certainly his! He loves his dinner, loves his daily walk, loves snuggles, and really loves wrestling with his soft toys.

I knew I'd love having a dog, but I hadn't realised just how satisfying it could be.

Our vow.

I, Anne-Marie, take you, John, to be my husband.
I love you - you are my best friend.
Today I give myself to you in marriage.

I promise to encourage you and inspire you, to laugh with you,
and to comfort you in times of sorrow and struggle.

I promise to love you in times of good and bad,
when life seems easy and when it seems hard,
when our love is simple and when it is an effort.

I promise to cherish you and to always hold you
in highest regard.
These things I give to you today and all the days of our life together.

*  *  *  *

Two days after our wedding, my sister, brother-in-law and two youngest nieces left for six months in the United States. After the joy of the wedding it was hard to say good-bye to them!
I took this picture of them on the porch of their house right before they left.

One month from today ....

... God willing, John and I will be married. 

We got engaged in February last year and since then wedding plans have been made and cancelled several times over, as one stumbling block after another met us on the road.

We’ve never wavered in our commitment to each other, but we just didn’t know when we’d be able to have a wedding. With John out of work for much of the past year, all our money has gone towards day to day living – never mind saving for a wedding.

But a couple of weeks ago, one Saturday night, I arrived at the club to pick John up after his football match. He’d had a few drinks, and he wanted to know how I felt about just going ahead with the wedding any way, as cheaply as possible? One of his best mates had given him a lecture about how we shouldn’t worry about an expensive wedding, we should just invite our favourite people and … get married.

The idea couldn’t have come at a better time for me. Over the past few weeks I’d started to feel sad about the fact the wedding seemed to be stalled indefinitely, although I hadn’t mentioned this to John. I didn’t want a big, fancy wedding – I just wanted us to get married. So that’s what we’re doing and I couldn’t be more excited!

So now when I’m not working or hooping I am elbow deep in wedding plans. I refuse to stress about it; both of us want to enjoy our wedding and the build-up to it.

It’s been very gratifying to see how excited people are for us. Not just our families, who are obviously delighted, but friends and colleagues too. Entering into a marriage is not something to be done lightly, and it is risky, yet people still seem to believe in marriage. [Except for one friend of mine who was “jokingly” very rude about me getting married. I probably wouldn’t consider him a friend anymore.]

So many people have offered memories of their own weddings, or bits of advice, or even practical help. Today one of my colleagues – a professional photographer – offered to shoot our wedding for free, just because he knew we were on a shoestring budget. Incredible.

And in case you’re wondering … yes, there will be hooping at our wedding reception. Of course!

Meet Monty.

All my life I’ve wanted my own dog, the way some women want their own child.

I grew up with dogs – when I was a child my family had an Australian terrier named Syd and a beagle named Josh. But by my early teens they were both gone, and ever since then there’s been a doggie-shaped hole in my heart.

Until a couple of years ago, my lifestyle was too transient to allow me to have a dog. I have lots of canine friends, and I love them. But it’s not the same as having my own dog, one who’s there when I get up every morning and when I come home from work in the evening, who depends on me for food, walks, cuddles and visits to the vet.

John and Sona and I had been discussing adopting a dog for a while. John had even built a fence to make our property secure for a dog. But we had made no definite moves towards getting ourselves a dog until one evening I received a text message from my dog-loving friend Steve, suggesting we get ourselves down to the local pound and take a look at the male west highland terrier there.

And that’s where we found Monty. He looked like this:

He had been horribly neglected and abused. He was filthy, skinny, infested with fleas and worms. But he sat in his cage and quietly wagged his tail whenever anyone went near. He had bright, intelligent eyes and a wet button of a nose. Despite his awful condition I found him irresistible. 

After a week, we were allowed to take Monty home with us. We gave him a bath and took him to the vet, who pronounced him to be in good health apart from the obvious. He needed to put on a lot of weight - he was just over half the weight he should have been - but the only real concern the vet had about Monty was a heart murmur.

Monty’s been with us for a month now, and we can barely remember life without him. We’re all besotted with him and he has to put up with being cuddled constantly [fortunately he has a high tolerance for cuddling]. The psychological scars he had from his previous life seem to be wearing off.

He recently had another vet visit; his heart murmur is gone and he’s put on 400g [he needs at least another kilo before he’s approaching a healthy weight].

Looking at him now, you would not believe just a month ago he was a scared, timid, lethargic dog who cringed at any unexpected move or noise. He’s now bouncy, energetic and sweet-natured … he loves to beat up his toy bunny, play with his doggie friends Oscar and Zella and snuggle in bed between John and I. My days always start off with a giggle when he gallops down the hall ahead of me, snorting enthusiastically because he knows it’s nearly breakfast time.

Thank you, Monty, for making me the happiest dog-mama in the world.



And thank you for being such excellent hooping company!!

Hooping at Lake Rotoiti.

Yay for hooping with other people!!

We spent the weekend at a bach [summer house] at Lake Rotoiti, near Rotorua. We met my brother and his family, and my parents, there and spent the weekend cooking, eating, sleeping, reading and, of course, hooping.

We missed my sister and her family, who couldn't make it, and the weather was quite wet. But I still managed to do plenty of hooping. There was a lovely little lawn between the house and the lake which was a picturesque spot for hooping. My sister-in-law and one of my nieces were keen to give hooping a go and they were immediately addicted. My sister-in-law even bought some hoops online on Saturday night.

I'm used to my solitary hooping sessions in the front garden, so it was great to have other women to hoop with. And I really LOVE spreading the hoop love ... seeing the look of delight on someone's face as they discover for the first time that THEY CAN HOOP is nearly as much fun for me as hooping itself.

Happy hooping,

Anne-Marie x