What having a dog has taught me

I'm not sure how many of my followers actually "follow" me or just browse over whatever I post, if you do you might see the odd hint towards my mental health state. I've suffered from depression since I was 5 years old, mostly due to a physically and emotionally abusive childhood. More recently I have struggled due to fairly emotional situations. My girlfriend and I have been through so tough moments which can mostly be blame on the fact we both have mental health issues, on top of that we also went through a completely unexpected miscarriage. The icing on the cake, my sister gave birth to a beautiful baby boy who unfortunately only make it to 3 hours old. It had all got to much for me and I snapped and tried to take my own life. I got some cable out of my car, stripped it back and tied it to a support beam in my loft. I was apparently sat in the loft for a few hours with this noose made from a cable around my neck, my girlfriend had tried ringing me the whole time and eventually snapped me out of the daze I was in. From then I climbed down from the loft and I just remember laying on the floor in a pathetic heap until the next morning.

Fast forward a few weeks, the bond with my girlfriend and I has grown to new levels, we still have a long way to go but it feels like we're really on the right path now and I feel the happiest I've ever been, that being said, I'm not cured from this black cloud that is depression.

Enter Nancy, a 18 month old blue staffy, who is a bundle of energy to say the least! Nancy is my girlfriends pup, I've been looking after her for the last week while my other half's mother is in America. Since having this little terror, my mood has definitely been brought up. She's pushed me to get up out of bed, leave the house and even talk to complete strangers, something I've struggled with for years. Knowing that this little pup relys on me to feed her and to take her walkies to get her the exercise she needs has really put things in a different perspective for me. When I've been down while having her, you can bet she noticed and did her best to cheer me up by literally chewing my ear off.

The saying really is true, that dogs are man's best friend. Today as I'm writing this, I am feeling pretty low that tonight is my last night having her so tomorrow evening she will be returned to her rightful owners. Rest assured though, I know I now have a friend for life, I will be looking into getting a pup of my own very soon

G