Now that’s a damn good way to shut up ole yeller just pop a titty in his mouth!!
It was sod’s law. I’d just got my daughter, Tasha, off to sleep, now, my dog, Dixie, was barking like mad to be fed. I opened the kitchen cupboard, only to see there wasn’t a single tin of dog food left. I felt like crying. Worst of all, I knew Dixie wouldn’t shut up until she’d filled her stomach.
‘We must have something,’ I said, as I peered inside the fridge.
Then I spotted the bottles of breast milk I’d expressed earlier that day.
Admittedly, Tasha, 17 months, was quite old to still be breastfeeding, but I loved the bond it gave us, so I’d decided to carry on. It was free, too, which was good, because since I’d split up with her dad, Ted Collins, 35, when she was 3 months old, money was tight.
I’d always produced more milk than Tasha could drink, so I’d got into the habit of keeping some in the fridge for when I left her with a babysitter.
I stared at the milk and then back at Dixie. I couldn’t, could I?
But her barking deafened me.
‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ I said, grabbing one of the bottles and pouring it in her bowl.
Dixie sniffed her bowl, and in no time at all, she’d lapped it up. I started to wonder.
Was I the only one who fed breast milk to a dog? I got on the internet, and within minutes I’d found no end of women who’d breastfed dogs, cats, even pigs. A lot of them didn’t just pour the milk into their pet’s bowls, they let them suckle at their breasts, too.
‘Oh my God,’ I gasped, as I looked at a photo of a woman with a cat suckling on her boob.
Surely that was unhygienic? Not to mention painful?
But the more I read, the more normal it seemed.
It’s almost as rewarding as feeding a baby, one woman had written.
That night, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Clearly, Dixie liked my milk.
So a few nights later, after I’d fed Tasha, Dixie jumped on the settee and I held my left
boob towards her. I squeezed out some milk, and wiped it around my nipple.
Within seconds, her long, pink tongue was gently licking my skin.
It tickled at first, but then, as she started suckling away, it didn’t feel much different to having Tasha there.
‘You liked that, didn’t you girl?’ I said, as she gently pawed my chest.
Despite having a mouthful of sharp teeth, she didn’t bite me and 10 minutes later, I gently pulled her off.
I was itching to tell someone about it.
But how? My mum, Jane, 62, and my mates would think I’d gone mad. So I kept it to myself.
But to be on the safe side, I rang the doctor and told him. He went quiet.
‘I-I suppose there isn’t a risk if they’re both healthy…’ he stammered.
That put my mind at rest. That lunchtime, I let Tasha feed from my left breast, then Dixie from my right. I disinfected myself afterwards. I didn’t expect everyone to be quite so open-minded, though.
So I didn’t tell my boyfriend of one month, Paul Murphy, 33.
On 15 October, I missed my period and was thrilled to find out I was pregnant.
Sadly, things didn’t work out with me and Paul, so after four months together, we split.
Two months on, Tasha isn’t feeding any more, so it’s a relief to have Dixie sucking some of the milk out of my swollen boobs.
I still feed her twice a day for 20 minutes a time.
My baby’s due in June and I’ll stop breastfeeding Dixie when I’m three months pregnant. Then I’ll express milk for her and start breastfeeding her again once the baby reaches 4 months. Yes, it’s weird. But it works for us.
Dixie, Tasha and I are happy, so you can think what you like, but I reckon you shouldn’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it!
