Made For Each Other

I hadn't realised quite how tactile I am, and how much I had missed the hugging and touching and patting - all the little gestures of connection you make when you love someone. I wasn't always touchy-feely, but having babies changed all that, and let me express a side of myself that was a bit repressed. Hugo has brought it all out in me again, and luckily for me he can't get enough of it either. Such a deeply affectionate little boy he is, and what a delight to have him curl up next to me on the sofa, to rearrange his elegant limbs a few times until he is as close to me as he can get, to heave a long sigh and then drop his head in my lap. His body is warm and soft, and his love is unconditional. When he looks at me with his trusting brown eyes I melt, I really do. Every time. So I agree with the medical research that shows having an animal calms you, slows your heart rate, reduces blood pressure, hopefully helps you to live longer. It certainly makes you happier. He couldn't be a better match for me, this glistening, gleaming black seal, black otter. On our walk this morning a scenario played out in my head, the one where someone says they want the dog and they'll pay any amount for him. How much would be enough? I thought of a figure and raised it, raised it again, got to £1 million, and pondered for all of five seconds. There are things I could do with a tidy sum like that, couldn't we all? But I wouldn't sell him. Not for all the tea in China. Or India. I've turned into a bowl of mushy peas, sloppy and wet. But who cares.