"Edward No!"
"What's he doing now?"
"Only chewed my glasses!...the little sod"
The first few months in our posh new home were a tad trying, but deep down, for the first time in my life my base mood was happy. As a single person my base mood was sadness and frustration but i would have some really happy days. Now my base was happy but had the occasional bad day. It was a huge difference. I had to pinch myself at times, I had everything I had ever wanted. A lovely house, a fiance, a step-daughter, a job I enjoyed, a couple of cats and a naughty beagle, who was rapidly becoming the most important thing in my life.
In fairness to Eddie he picked up toilet training really quickly, very early on in his life he would start wandering over to the door and tapping on it, when he needed to go outside, he wouldn't bark or yap he would stand patiently tapping on the door with his paw until someone let him out. In that regard he was an absolute star. Where we had a bit of a problem was with him chewing...he wasn't picky he would chew whatever he could get hold of.
Family life did take a bit of getting used to, as I mentioned before I had never been a fan of children, even when I was a child myself they were not really my cup of tea. My first year at infants school I tried to run away every chance i got. I think the guards / teachers used to take turns in chasing me as I made my daily bolt for the gate in a futile bid for freedom. I was like a mini Steve McQueen in the Great Escape, my attempts always ended with me dying on barbed wire, metaphorically speaking obviously...it was infants school! It was once I started senior school that life became very frightening and violent.
So I did struggle with G, she was 9/10 years old and a bit complicated but having Ed around helped me enormously. A puppy just takes so much stress out of life. I often say dogs are just brilliant at neutralising stress. You come home grumpy after a bad day and your dog comes running to the door squealing and yapping with a look of pure joy on his face, your grumpiness just melts away. I have said on many occasions, in my advancing years, Eddie was the only living thing who managed to convince me I was loved.
As I say getting things right with G was difficult but I think I did ok. Every other weekend she would go to her dads, which helped. When I first met her Dad I was quite taken aback as he was a dead ringer for Elton John. Jo must have had a thing for the middle-of-the-road ageing popstar look, as much to my chagrin, once I started losing my hair many people compared me to Phil fucking Collins! On the plus side I guess I'd rather that than Elton John. Me and G's dad did not really get along but I guess it was a strange situation for both of us and to be fair the speed of which me and Jo went headlong into our relationship would be disconcerting for G and her Dad. The first time G met me, me and her Mum were already engaged!!
A further complication was that after a couple of months of living together Jo's Mum got divorced and came to live with us supposedly for a short, but worryingly for me unspecified, period of time. If we didn't have the cats and especially Ed I would have been losing the plot. Whenever i felt like i was losing control I would just spend some time with my boy and i'd be fine. Although I would get quite discombobulated, when I would walk into the living room of an evening and the wife (after we got engaged me and Jo had taken to calling each other 'husband' and 'wife' with me being husband and her being wife) the wife would ask me to sit on the sofa with her and her Mum to watch Coronation Street!? I would assess the situation. Ignoring the fact I could not stand Coronation Street. The wife was sat at one end of the sofa the mother-in-law was sat at the other end so the only space available was the middle seat. "Hang on a minute" the voice in my head raged. "You are the man of the house...the man of the house does not sit in the middle seat!" I am sure all men of the house would agree with me. The wife still got visibly annoyed when i politely declined scooped up Eddie and went upstairs to the spare room to watch the footy and play fight Eddie he would chew away at my fingers and I would have a permanent smile on my face just looking at him.
As I have previously mentioned we moved in at the end of January and for six weeks I did not get a sniff of a winner on the horses. I have always been a gambler I was never particularly good at it but this was a terrible run, we were into March, Cheltenham was coming up and I started to think I was never gonna get another winner. I convinced myself I had used up all my luck meeting Jo and getting Ed I went to the local Ladbrokes and did a double...which later in the day came in and I won £800 Get in!
Ed was now old enough that we could start going out for walks. I have to say I loved walking the streets of Whittlesey with him. The place was so much nicer than Peterborough, it was a bit like going back in time most people chatted, not surprising really Eddie was ridiculously cute and lots of people wanted to say hello. Maybe it was because I had spent much of my childhood there, maybe because it was not very multi-cultural at the time... agricultural yes but not very multi-cultural, whatever the reason I just felt really at home and really safe in Whittlesey, it sure beat the hell out of Woodston! After a few months a few of the older male residents of Whittlesey got to calling out "Mawninbiggleboiy" which I took to mean 'Morning Beagle Boy' as me and Eddie wandered by "Good Morning" I would wave back, it was a magical time for me.
During the first six months of Eddie's life he would sleep downstairs in the kitchen, well a little room just off the kitchen, which we later turned into a hairdressing salon when Jo set up business on her own. Eddie was never too keen on this set up and I went down one morning to find he had eaten one of my training shoes. Nikes!
The wife shouted down from upstairs. "What are you yelling about husband? We are trying to sleep up here"
"Eddie" I said "He has eaten my shoe!"
"Eaten your shoe?"
"Yes the little bastard"
"What all of it?"
"Well no not all of it the sole is still there but that ain't much use on it's own is it?"
I looked down at him and smiled "You rotten little git, you have to stop eating everything, you will make yourself ill, you wanna sleep upstairs don't you?" Ed started wagging his tail. I gave him his breakfast and then we went out for our morning walk.
"Mawninbiggleboiy...why you only wearing one shoe then?" (Not really I made that bit up.)
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