The Womble
Several months ago, my glorious Hector and I were enjoying a cup of earl grey, a slight wordle fracas and a morning chat in bed when his phone pinged. It was from a friend of ours, and it was a social media post about a lurcher looking for a new home. At this point it had only been 3 months since we had lost our beautiful Elsie Spindles, and quite honestly we were struggling with her loss. We looked at each other and agreed it was far too soon to even think about having another one, although she was of course beautiful. Ten minutes later Hector had filled in the application form and the next day we were off to Wales to meet Tess. We had asked several times how big she was, and each time we were told that they weren't sure. Nor were they sure of just how heavy she was. That of course should have initiated the klaxon of suspicion.
On arrival we stood chatting to someone at Many Tears animal rescue - we can heartily recommend them - and a voice behind us asked if we were waiting for Tess. 'Indeed' we excitedly shrilled and turned around to the vision of an ENORMOUS fluffy grey womble. She ambled in with some shetland ponies and was taller than them. She also had a purple tail which was an unexpected addition, blamed on the exuberance of a unsupervised teenager prior to the rescue.
We were, truth be told, a little alarmed. Elsie had been 22kg and was really as big as we ever wanted. We had even agreed that when the time came for our next hound - because of course it would have to be a hound - it would be more the size of a whippet. Easier to fold up in cafes etc etc. Tess, as it turned out was 32kg and resembled a hairy grey barge with the turning circle of an aircraft carrier.
As you can see, common sense was telling us that really, it was far too soon for us to even think about welcoming another hound into our home and that she was far too big for us.
Reader, we adopted her.
So here we are nearly a year since that auspicious day. We are naturally head over heels in love with Tess. It has been complicated though. We felt very guilty and to some extent only really started mourning Elsie properly when Tess came home with us. It was only then that we were truly reminded of things that we missed about her. Tess is of course completely different. Her size has meant that we have had to sell our lovely Eriba caravan as she won’t fit in it properly. We also had to change our car to a bigger one. None of these changes were planned but what do you do? She is exceptionally affectionate, clumsy and has a fetish for collecting shoes. She always looks as though she has been dragged backwards through a hedge and also has a perpetually drippy nose. Naturally we wouldn't be without her. Since I have had Elsie's diary published, I have been asked if I would write about Tessy Wombles. Initially I couldn't, I didn't really know her well enough to pick out her foibles. But also I felt unable to write, in fact I struggled with being creative in any form after losing Elsie. I think it might be time though, I think I feel an urge to convey just how beautifully strange she is to the world.
Comments