Pure Chocolate

I am a sucker for chocolate in any form or flavour. I especially love a decadent mud cake iced with ganache. I’d choose chocolate over lollies every time and can often be found snuggled up with a ‘not too hot’ cup of home-made hot chocolate – not to mention the Arnotts Chocolate Teddy Bear dipping biscuit.

There is another chocolate-coated love in my life and she has four paws and sleeps in the laundry. When I write my blog during daylight I can see her lapping up the rays as she lies on the grass. At night I can hear her breathing on the floor of the study. She is nine years old and her whiskers have greyed and her legs have stiffened, but Wonka is our faithful pet dog and very much a part of our family.

Wonka was our first born of the four-legged variety. She was the runt of the litter, a gentle and almost apologetic bitch. Her fur was a deep chocolate colour that rippled down her back when she was nervous. Her imbalanced ears flopped gently from her head and her belly was pale pink and distended from recently suckling her mother. She needed her mother and was too young to leave her warmth, but she was ours to take home.

My hub scooped her into his arms and she burrowed into his shirt, hiding her head under the collar. Her paws were tucked securely inside his hands. Her brown moist nose explored her new Dad, followed by a warm pink tongue and sharp puppy teeth. Tentative black eyes kept watching us from her shady hideout, slowly beckoned by sleep. Closing. Opening. Alert. Closing. Closed. Delicate lashes resting and an apprehensive pup, almost foetal, her heart racing against my husband’s chest.

Watching that little nose twitching and drawing in breath felt so natural. Only five weeks old and she was about to leave her mother, brothers and sister forever. Those eyes betrayed her fears when they were open but as she slept with her milky whiskers resting on Cliff’s arm, she gave herself to us completely. Trusting. Pure chocolate.


PS. Wonka's now 30kgs