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A new addition to the family

It's Jessica's birthday and she's celebrating the arrival of a new member of the family


It’s my birthday today. It’s not a landmark birthday, but I always think that having my birthday on 1st May – Mayday – is a pretty special thing because I get a bank holiday in my honour! When you work full-time, there’s nothing more special than an extra day off.

Unfortunately I no longer have a full-time job. I unexpectedly lost it about ten days ago so this weekend isn’t special for having an extra day off.

It is special for another reason. We got a puppy! She’s a Sprocker Spaniel (cross between a Springer and a Cocker Spaniel) and she came home yesterday. Her name’s Ella and she’s a little over seven weeks old. Born on my husband’s birthday and coming home the day before mine, I think she was meant to be part of our family. I’m not sure Felix (our cat) is too enamoured with Ella, but I’m sure they’ll become friends eventually.

Isn’t she absolutely gorgeous?

She was part of a huge litter of 14, although three of them were stillborn, leaving five girls and six boys. It was heartbreaking taking her away from her mum, Holly, yesterday, and her owner Christine. She cried. I cried. Holly whimpered. One of the puppies is staying, though, and I think Holly will ultimately be relieved because she was apparently absolutely exhausted by 11 of them running around.

Having a puppy move in this weekend has meant a slightly unusual birthday in that we’ve been pretty much trapped in the house with the occasional trip out to the garden for toilet training. As a bare minimum, we’d normally go out for tea to celebrate my birthday, but we can’t abandon Ella. I have insisted on cake, though, and I’m looking forward to a slab of enormous chocolate cake as my birthday treat. Nom nom!

Happy bank holiday weekend everyone :-) xx

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