Filed under: April 1, Bird, Bonnie, Cats, Dog, Family, Home, Jill, Otis, Rosie, Sky

It’s April 1.
Normally on this day, I undertake an elaborate ‘April Fool’ post.
There’s been some good ones in the past.
The ‘Method Planning’ post.
The ‘Sniffer Dog, Retail Location Scout’ post.
The ‘AI Human Robot Focus Group’ post.
The ‘Poetry Drives Communication Effectiveness’ post.
… I say good, mainly because some people fell for them and then repeated the ‘methodology’ without realizing they were actually publicizing their own gullibility.
That said, there have been many that have just been shit … and I don’t mean that just because people saw through them like a greenhouse.
But today there is no April Fool … both because I’m trying to come to terms with the fact we’re in month 4 of 2025 already and because later this week, the joke is on me – because in just 5 days, we welcome a dog, Bonnie, into our lives and home.

A puppy is very different to a cat.
More energy.
More dependence.
More biting.
More noise.
More trouble.
More mess.
And yet, despite all that, I have to say I’m very much looking forward to the house having an additional member in the place.
While we have Sky – Otis’ bad-tempered budgie – the loss of Rosie, is still felt … despite the fact that she slept for a lot of her final years, and no one feels this more than Jill.
She used to love having Rosie sitting next to her as she worked.
Snoozing on a pillow next to her computer. Occasionally waking up to quietly judge her or her work or demand that Friskies be fed to her by hand whenever she chooses.
It was a nice interruption given she spent a lot of time on her own while I was at the office and Otis was at school.
And while she likes the momentary peace and quiet she gets from us being away – going from 1000 decibels of noise to 1 is extreme.
For her, the silence becomes loud-as-fuck with the time passing slower than a snail.
It can be pretty lonely and intimidating to be honest … and while she has never complained about it, I know that’s one of the reasons why she has always loved animals and why they’ve always been so important in her life.
So while Bonnie will, for all intents and purposes, be Otis’ pooch … she, along with Sky, will be Jill’s workday colleague and after 20+ years of waiting for a dog, I’ve never been so happy to be the April Fool.
