The title contains a group of words we tend to use when, for some reason, something happens in our life that is inexplicable.

I can think of several times things have happened in my life that might not have happened if……..

It was a Sunday before a May Bank Holiday in 2018. Julian and I had planned to go to the Dogs Trust in Chestfield. Our lovely Rosie had died over a year earlier and we thought it was about time to look for another. But, Julian was out somewhere and didn’t get home in time so we went the next day.

We walked into the centre, marvelling at how it had changed since 2005 when we had picked up our Rosie. The kennels had been outside then but now the dogs were visible from inside along the two side walls. We walked up one side and down the other but didn’t find what we were looking for, namely a smaller dog who would be easier to walk.

I had had to give up walking Rosie as she was hostile to other dogs and would try to attack them before they could attack her, (though, of course, most dogs wouldn’t have. She had had a difficult life, living on the streets of a city in northern England and had learned to fight first.). My days of walking Rosie ended the day she spotted a woman walking two dogs on the other side of the road before I did. One second I was walking Rosie, the next I was flat on my face on the pavement and Rosie was trying her best to scare away the two dogs. Luckily, the woman with the two dogs took control immediately, grabbing Rosie’s lead and separating them.

We had gone to training classes with Rosie, we had met with more than one dog psychologist but no one had been able to help us with her dislike of other dogs. So, Julian became the dog walker in our house from then on.

Back to the Bank Holiday Monday. Discouraged, Julian suggested we go home and come back in several weeks but I thought it would be worth sitting down and filling in the form about what we were looking for in a dog. As we sat there, talking about how to answer this or that question, Julian looked up and saw a man coming through the door with a little dog and said to me, “That dog has a really small head!”

I turned and looked at the little dog and agreed and went back to the paperwork. A while later I took the question sheet to the desk and a young woman said she would come and talk to us in a few moments.

Sure enough, she came and sat down at the table. We talked about why we wanted a smaller dog. Julian told her he wanted a Jack Russell because he knew a man with one and that he took his dog out painting with him and that the dog was very obedient while the man painted.

Just before we left, the young woman said, “ We do have a small dog here in the office. She was being picked up by a man who wanted her but he decided not to have her after all. She’ll be going back to her foster place later. Perhaps you’s like to see her?”

We both agreed that we would like to see her. Lo and behold, she was the dog with the little head. A week later, after theDogs Trust had made sure our garden and house were safe, we drove back to the Dogs Trust and collected our little Lola.

The reason I’m telling this story here is that if we had gone there as planned, on the Sunday, we wouldn’t have seen her – she’d be at the foster carer’s. If we had gone any other day that week, she’d also be at her foster carer’s. Was it Fate that the three of us were there at the right time? Who cares! She may be small but she’s a big part of our family – and I can walk her without falling on my face!

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