Working Day 3 of waiting for a response from the adoption agency (it might be 4 but I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt with regards to Royal Mail delivering the form). I thought I’d post some details about our dogs that the social worker that we spoke to seemed to take exception to us having.
Our youngest dog, we’ll call him F, is just over 2 years old and we got him together from a puppy just before we moved into our current house and he is a working cocker spaniel. He’s a lot needier than our other dog, but very loving and gentle with people. Very energetic and loves a good game of fetch, although doesn’t always let go once he returns his toy to you.
Our other dog Z is about 7 and a half years old. I’ve had him since he was a puppy and even before my partner and I got together, he’s a cocker spaniel too, but not a working one. He’s quite an independent dog and will entertain himself if he’s left with something to play with. He’s particularly keen on squeaky toys and will spend ages with a stuffed animal biting it in various places to try to figure out where it squeaks (even if it doesn’t have one). There are two things which really bring out his playful side, the first being a laser pointer, it’s like he turns into a cat with him pouncing on it and trying to grab it with his paws. The second thing is the hose. At the moment, as the weather is nice, the hose pipe is uncoiled and sitting in the garden to make it easier to water the plants, Z has a tendency to go out and stand by it waiting for someone to spray it so he can chase the water stream around, not caring if he gets soaked in the process (a good job we’re not overly houseproud!)
Both dogs are very obedient (although Z is starting to get a bit stubborn now that he’s a ‘senior’ dog), to the point where the other day I put their dinners down on the floor and got distracted. I realised about 5 minutes later that I hadn’t told them they could start eating so they were still sitting there looking at their food waiting for permission (I hadn’t even been in the room).
I don’t think either dog will have a problem with the introduction of a child or children into our home. They are both very friendly and loving, and revel in any attention they can get. I also don’t think they’ll have a problem with the children being above them in the hierarchy of the house as both are quite submissive to people (not necessarily to each other though!). Z for instance, adapted very quickly to my partner being added to the household, although he was a bit grumpy for a while when F arrived he loves playing with his brother now!
EDIT: I have removed the pictures of the dogs in order to fully anonymise this blog (just a precaution)
Don’t give them the benefit of the doubt. Your form is probably sitting on someone’s desk. From our own experience – forget patience – chase, chase, chase. All our delays – and there were many – were all procedural – i.e, people on holiday, meeting not being scheduled properly. Social workers are good at being empathetic towards the people they are dealing with. Trust them when it comes to matching you with the right child, trust them to get your true feelings out of you. In that respect they know what they doing. They are useless at organising things. Stay on their backs and things will move quicker.
Maybe it was just our experience but I have spoken t others who feel the same.
Anyway Good luck!
My first comment, thank you!
A lot of the stuff I’ve read from people having gone through the adoption process seem to be saying the same thing as you about chasing, things seemed to stand still until they pushed. Thank you for the advice, I had been hoping that the new 2 stage, 6 month maximum, process would help to combat the delays caused by procedural breakdown, but I don’t know what their incentives are (if any) to keep to it. They were certainly singing its praises when we spoke to them about it, but it seems to be self-monitored.
We will see, and in the meantime I’ll put my ‘chase up’ hat on that I usually reserve for chasing up solicitors during house purchases!
P.
My pleasure – solicitors! Don’t get me started 🙂