What I See with Peter Fiorenza: Puppy trials and tribulations nothing compared to puppy love

My dogs are more than 18 months old, and it seems like a lifetime ago they were pups, just little balls of fluff. You could say, a lot of water has gone under the bridge since I brought them home from Moonyoonooka. In fact, it seems as though Billie and Joel have always been part of my life. I can tell you, there have been times when I’ve thought, ‘why did I adopt two border collies?’. But there have been far more times that I have been rescued from the grind of everyday life by their loving acceptance. At the end of the day, I really like having Billie and Joel around, and everything that goes with looking after two smart, energetic canines. I’ve never had children, but I’m thinking bringing up dogs is somewhat similar in respect to the many trials and tribulations. I’ve written before, how the first few weeks I had them at home, they, literally, turned my life upside down. My once quite clean, tidy and ordered house was flipped on its head. There were food scraps, destroyed cushions and ones and twos all over the place, to the point, that I reckon, I needed to buy shares in Glenn 20 disinfectant. And the persistent whining that gave me sleepless nights. Once they were finally house-trained, it was out into the yard, only to discover that it was now time for the digging phase. At one stage, there were so many holes in my driveway, that it resembled a scene from WWI’s Battle of the Somme, or a replica of the Super Pit near Kalgoorlie. I’m not joking. At one stage, I even feared for my house footings, because these holes were so big and deep. Believing that my pooches were meant to spend a lot of time with me, I started to steadily allow them back inside. Again, there were teething problems, but after some difficult lessons, I think things have started to plateau. These lessons involve my reading glasses and my sunglasses on two separate occasions — I almost cry just thinking about it. You see, I thought my kitchen bench was high enough to leave such things unattended. I was wrong. The reading glasses episode began with me noticing a chewed up glasses case on my back lawn. OMG. Don’t tell me the little beggars have chewed up my spectacles? Oh no, I looked everywhere across the lawn. Nothing. As my heart continued to sink, a miracle. There, next to the feeding bowls were my glasses. I rushed to pick them up. I was relieved to find that although they were scratched, they were salvageable, however, my prescription sunnies weren’t as lucky. From the bench to mangled on the floor in less than 90 seconds. Things have started to settle down now, if you could call losing two feather doonas and the smashing of a large ornamental urn minor. Wait, there’s also the numerous ripped tea towels and food scraps continually taken from the bin — but, hey, these setbacks simply pale in comparison to unconditional love. Peter Fiorenza hosts Fiorenza on Sunday between 10am and noon on Radio MAMA