Meet our Little Orange Dog

Well, since I have been so cheeky and named our blog after our little dog, it seems only fair that the first post should be about him.

This is Max, he is our gorgeous and very spoilt Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Being a Cavi, Max is a particularly useless guard dog because he genuinely believes that everyone is his friend. This Cavi trait also makes for some rather interesting dog walks because he thinks that all and sundry will want to make a fuss of him; fine if the passer-by is a dog lover, not fine if they're not so keen, highly embarrassing if Max has just dragged you across the street because he spotted a man - honestly, I have not trained him to do this, he really does like men...a lot. When not dragging me up to random men in the street, Max loves to snuggle up on the sofa for cuddles, or play fetch with his plush burger; we really should have shares in Pet's at Home with the number of these things we get through, but they are his favourite and they're cheap as chips!

Max is the first dog we've had as a family. I grew up in a house that always had a dog in it, but after losing our Black and Tan Cavi, Rupert when I was a teen, could never take to another breed in the same way and to be truthful (close your ears Max) I never really wanted a dog again, at least not until a couple of years ago, much badgering by my youngest daughter and a chance encounter with an escapee dog on our estate.

Now for some reason, if a dog is without collar, and has managed to slip out of its home, chances are it will end up on my doorstep. Cookie, so named by the girls, no idea what his real name is, was the first escapee to end up here. After a lot of walking around the estate, knocking on doors and asking strangers if they knew where he lived, we resorted to bringing him home, putting him in the garden and calling the dog warden, whom may I add, came out very quickly. The girls were in their element and desperately wanted to keep the little fella, but thankfully, particularly for the cat, his owner was located. So happy cat, happy dog, happy dog owner, sad girls, but not for long because my cousin's Blenheim Cavi had just had a litter of three pups. And that is how Max came to be our little orange dog.

Max isn't just our pet, he is part of our family, so there will be lots more posts about him I'm sure.