When I started my business from my home in 2021, it was during the Covid Pandemic. Like everyone experienced, my life took an unexpected turn – I went from hardly ever being at home to hardly ever leaving home! Life before Covid was based very much on work and golf. Life during the pandemic was based totally on being at home with my husband and my pets, and following rules and guidelines to the letter out of absolute fear of the dreaded disease. I will be the first to admit that I absolutely loved “Lockdown”, and I was much slower than everyone else to return to normality again. Well, my normality had changed!!
I vividly remember watching the constant barrage of news updates on the spread of the virus, and was extremely upset by the fact that countries were sending planes around the world to basically hitch a ride home to people who were stranded across the globe. As I watched this play out on tv, my lovely loyal beagle, Josie lay in her bed, oblivious to it all. But my heart was breaking at the thought of stranded pets, who didn’t know why their person wasn’t at home, wondering if they had they been abandoned? Here comes THE PROMISE………….
“I promise you Josie that I will never leave you, you will never have to wonder where I have gone”
It’s a very risky promise to try to keep, especially with a killer virus going around! But I had made it, and so I committed to it as fully as I could. There would be no need for a passport, not as long as Josie graced our lives. So for all the people, and there were many, who repeatedly asked me why I wouldn’t go away on holidays – there is your answer.
Then, setting up business at home meant time at home – time spent doing online training, online start-up courses, working on the plot part of The Petal Plot – all with you know who by my side……Josie. And I wouldn’t change a single minute.
Josie earned her stripes at The Petal Plot, having been promoted to “Head Gardener” for her skills of snout digging and head burying and sniffing out the leatherjackets!
Josie had lost a leg to cancer in August 2023, and for almost 9 more months she carried out her duties of hunting, playing, snoring and cuddling as good as ever, right up until the end. But the Cancer hadn’t gone. Then on 31st May 2024, with the help of our trusted vet, we held her in our arms together and said the words she knew so well, crying and kissing as her spirit gently left and made its way to the rainbow bridge.
So today, 24th June 2024 on what would have been Josie’s 13th Birthday, I share with you my story – all for the love of a dog. We visit her grave daily, she is here in her righteous spot in the plot, to be forever in our hearts and in our garden. Now – the promise is hers to keep.
Thank you Baby Girl Dog.
Ye have me in years
Awwww