I've always said I like other people's dogs....

Her name is Clara and she's a staffy (I think, god, I know bugger all about dogs :P). I'm not sure how old she is, 3-ish perhaps. When she wags her tail it's not just the tail that wags, her entire body curls around into a semi-circle. I kind of fell for Clara the first time I met her about a year ago, something about the grinning face and her insistence on receiving her fair share of attention coupled with her beautifully good behaviour. Hey, I'm a sucker for other people's dogs.

Clara belongs to a family who came here from Germany at the beginning of last year with the intention of staying for at least 4 years (if memory serves) but those plans were thwarted when dad's contract was canceled and no other work could be found before the terms of their visa forced them to head back to Germany. They leave next Friday.

Caitlin was invited for a play after school this afternoon with their daughter (they were in the same class last year) and when I arrived to pick Caitie up Clara did her usual dance of joy to greet me. Eventually the conversation came round to the dog and the fact that it was prohibitively expensive for them to take her with them and that they were going to take her to the pound in the morning. I'm not even sure who it was that first suggested it, it might have been one of the kids, I don't think it was me...but of course, once the idea was out there we were doomed.

We're getting a dog.

She's moving in here on Monday.

We'd better fix the fences.