And so it begins

This blog could, and probably will, be about many things.

The original idea initially came about as another means to stay in touch with my family, all of whom live thousands of miles away. However, ultimately it's a blog about dogs, a nice tidy catch-all for all my craziness because, as Sticks would say, I'm a dog person. Unfortunately, dog people can get a little wearing in day-to-day life since, surprisingly enough, not everyone is interested in the search for the perfect dog food, or in viewing 3 new photos of "pooch snoozing on couch". In the interest of saving my relationships with the normal people out there (and diversifying my facebook status), this will primarily be the new home for my dog-related mania.

Which is ironic of course because the audience I expect to have - my family - are pretty convinced that I've gone crackers. Not only, in a rather uncharacteristic development, have I moved to the other side of the world, but I've acquired a dog. And not just any dog: a jumping, slobbering, rubbish-bin-trawling,   barking, shoe-chewing, furniture-lounging, supernaturally strong 72lb American Bulldog.

To put that in context, when I was little I didn't even like dogs. My mam is allergic and phobic and the dogs that my friends owned were frankly a bit large, intimidating and noisy for me.

We had budgies and hamsters and goldfish - little, inoffensive creatures that were easily contained and didn't set off my mam's asthma nor my eczema. Which of course neatly leads to the point that I was told I couldn't even have pets. In fact, by the time I was in my late teens,  the doctors told me that for the rest of my life I shouldn't have so much as bird in the house as I was too allergic.

Well, to cut a long story short, it's been 3 years since the first dog nosed her way into my affections, and 15 months since I opened my home to one (and not an itch since, so it just goes to show what doctors know). While I'm sure that I'll digress into craft projects, concerts, cooking disasters, vacations and all of the other bits and bobs that make up my life outside of work - for this is a decidedly office-free zone - the characters that will populate these pages will mostly be furry.
With wet noses.
And wagging tails...