Miss Worth: Alfie

Alfie

I can't believe it has taken me this long to tell you about our dog, Alfie. He is a very special member of our family and one that myself and my brother fought hard to get. For years and years we wanted a dog. First, we lived in the suburbs in London. My parents deemed this not a very adequate location or home for a dog. But, we were young so we just accepted what our parents told us. Then we moved to Ireland. We moved to a rural town and thought 'Hey, let's get a dog now!' but no, our parents told us that the house was too small. So, again myself and my brother just accepted that. We then moved to another house. We still wanted a dog but the house we moved in to was, unfortunately, smaller than the one we were living in. Of course, we asked and asked. Then our cousins got a dog and it just seemed more and more unfair. After living in that house for 5 years we moved again. This time in to my Mums dream house. Myself and my mum worked a lot together in picking out furniture, colour schemes, kitchen design and lots more. It was brilliant. I loved the experience. Listening in on conversations with builders, negotiating and having a bit of banter.

Our garden in the snow

As you can see from the picture we have a big garden and our house is much bigger than the previous houses that we lived in. Now, my parents didn't have any excuses. The house was no longer too small and neither was the garden. However, my Dad was still adamant that we were not getting a dog. Much to our despair. Every few months the idea of getting a dog kept coming up in conversation. I had met my Boyfriends fabulous two dogs Happy and Milly. This just made me want one even more. As if that was even possible!

Happy, Milly & I

I had had enough of hearing no. If my boyfriend could have two dogs and they didn't give any trouble and they weren't a burden to anyone then why couldn't I?? Myself and Shane created this picture ^^ to show my parents how much I loved dogs. I plagued them with picture messages. I even set the wallpaper on our family iMac to a picture of Milly and stuck post-its all around the screen begging for a dog. One of them read 'A new puppy would be wuf-ly!' Written by Shane. To add to all of this, I knew that I was going in to my second year of college and that I might not have much time left at home. Maybe 2 or 3 years. If I didn't get a puppy then, we were never going to get one.

One weekend in July my parents headed away together to County Waterford. Myself and Peter had the house to ourselves for a few days. Bliss. A few days previous myself and my mum had seen an irresistible Goldendoodle.

Goldendoodle

He was just gorgeous. This set off my want for a dog once again. I came home and within 10 minutes of sitting down I was on DoneDeal searching for a puppy. I found gorgeous Goldendoodles but they were quite expensive and I knew that they grew to a big size. Then it dawned on me that maybe a ShihTzu would be the perfect dog for our home. I found some located about 50 minutes from our home. While my parents were away, I called the seller. I arranged to meet her with the puppy and we agreed on a price. My parents were in Waterford and they could not stop me. It was my only chance. I was very scared and very worried. What if it all went wrong? There was a million thoughts running through my head. We reached our destination. There was Alfie. I was so nervous to agree to the purchase of the dog. But, I did.