Adopting Oscar

It’s been six weeks since Oscar came home with us, and it already seems like he has been with us for his whole little life.  He has settled in with the whole family very quickly, and seems to love his new household.  You see Oscar is a six year old English springer spaniel. 

It turned out to be a long process to adopt a dog.  We registered our interest at Battersea Dogs & Cats home a couple of years ago.  They interviewed us and came to do a home visit.  All of this information is vital to the rehomers at Battersea in determining the best fit for you and the dog. 
Once approved, my youngest son began his almost daily search of the Battersea website to find ‘his’ dog.  Every few weeks we would come across a dog that seemed like a good fit for us.  We would make an appointment to meet the dog, and inevitably we would come home empty handed.  There was always a valid reason:  the dog couldn’t live with children, couldn’t live in the city, needed a private garden, had a life-threatening health condition, etc.  On one of our visits in October my son broke down in tears and asked, ‘What’s wrong with us, why won’t they give us a dog?’

I think the rehomer must have taken pity on us because 3 days later I received a phone call saying that the perfect dog for us had arrived at Battersea.  He was an older dog that had been brought in because his owner had passed away.  He could live in the city, with children and didn’t need a private garden – hooray!  My youngest son and I were there within minutes.  The initial visit went well.  Oscar was a bit nervous around us at first, but immediately settled down.  So we scheduled an appointment for Saturday with the whole family.

We arrived for the family meeting with Oscar and he came bounding into the ‘interview room’ and greeted me and my youngest with great enthusiasm.  He was more sceptical around the two new faces.  My older son won him over with a few treats, but he wasn’t interested in my husband.  In fact, he growled at him, put his tail between his legs and scampered away. 

The rehomer immediately noticed this behaviour and said that she wasn’t sure that Oscar could come to live with us. Panic!  How could we convince her that all was well?  She decided to leave us alone in the room as a family with Oscar.  Slowly he started to make friends with my husband and by the time the rehomer came back, both Oscar and my husband were relaxed with each other.  Success!  A few hours later we walked out of Battersea with the newest member of our family!

Oscar has been such a joy.  He greets us all every morning with ‘hugs’ and an enthusiasm that is overwhelming.  In hindsight I can say that it was worth the wait to find the right dog for us!

Written by Eva Stock. Eva is Director of Sponsors Relations at FOCUS

Battersea Dogs & Cats home: 
www.battersea.org.uk