When selling a house and welcoming a new Guide Dog puppy coincide, life can get a bit hectic. Our new pup, Krystal, is due tomorrow and her arrival is coinciding with the first viewing weekend of our house sale. Mmmm! Two ways to look at this. Do you think of the pup as a selling point... to draw people in and make the place memorable... a bit like the Andrex puppies? Or do you take the advice of the agents and hide all evidence of dogs completely, especially their smell. But that seems crazy in a semi-rural property. Surely people coming here will want a dog, won't they? Can we have a dog now, Mum? I can hear the kids in my head. (I have lots of potential buyers in my head.... just none on the ground, yet.) But no, agents assure me that the smell of coffee or bread baking (are you joking!) is preferable to the smell of dogs or puppy wee. And filling the air with the scent of floor cleaner and air freshener is a dead give-away that you're trying to cover up something.
Anyway, clearly a plan of action is required and husband needs to act quickly on my instructions as soon as the phone goes to inform us of a viewing. All puppy toys, bowls, blankets, 4-hourly feeds measured and bagged up, water, cleaning agents ... oh, and the puppy too.... will be bunged into the indoor kennel (cage) and the whole shebang lifted into the back of the car. Then we'll tootle off to who-knows-where until we get the 'all clear'.
Hang on, we've forgotten Sparky. Sparky is an ex-Guide Dog pup, now a 3 year old, who is having his holidays with us. He's a real gentleman, but boy, does he moult... so while husband is loading puppy et al into the car, I need to whip around with the vacuum cleaner and waft the doors open and shut a few times to encourage a bit of fresh air. Oh, and I mustn't forget a quick poo patrol in the garden. Guide Dogs are trained to use one area... but accidents happen.
Golly, gosh, I'm worn out already. And how many times are we going to have to go through this performance? It doesn't bear thinking about. And I bet husband will forget to put the toilet seat down.
I've never hidden any of our pets when selling our houses and I moved several times (downsizing) when I was divorced with two kids, two cats, a rabbit and I forget how many gerbils and hamsters. I always sold. People should look at the house not the contents. They'll be saying you should recover your sofa next in case the colour offends.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the sale and the new pup and don't forget we'll be waiting for photos!
Laugh...leave all alone and let the viewers see it is a lovely happy home, that is far more important! Keep us updated on progress and of course, pics and more pics of the pup! Good luck. x
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