After more weeks than I can now remember I have been fortunate to work from home; and during the period of uncertainty outside my door, my one constant has been my trusty companion Luna, who was not too keen to have lost her privacy at first.
She started looking at me as if to ask why I was at home all the time, if she could speak she would have asked for me to go and leave her to sleep in peace. As the time has gone on, I do think that Luna has got used to me being in ‘her space’, joining me on zoom calls, sleeping under my desk and occasionally voicing her opinion whilst I am on calls.
As I have started to go out again and on the occasion that Luna cannot come with me, I have left her for a short while and I have come to realise that everything that she has come to rely on during lockdown and the weeks that followed (i.e. my never-ending presence) is starting to be taken away from her.
I am now aware that she needs the extra rewards when I come home to a sofa in one piece, the frozen treats to keep her entertained whilst I am gone and her own personal music play list (don’t all dogs have one?) to keep her company.
I have had a few punishments for leaving her, for example my garden has a few new holes and her favourite toys have needed stitches more than once but so far not too bad. I’ve started looking at ways to entertain her whilst I go out, enrich her play time with our dry complete food wrapped in towels, hide and seek with her toys in the garden and scatter feeding. I have realised that she loves Salmon with trout best so I use that recipe when I know I need to get her on side. I find it freezes well in a Kong if soaked a little first so it lasts her a while.
It has been lovely working at home with her by my side, and with a few tweaks to my day we have a great partnership. And for those times that I have had to go out, that welcome home really does physically knock me off my feet!