When we adopted KiKi our motivations were not selfless, we were not “rescuing” her in the way that many dogs are genuinely rescued from being euthanised. Rather we were very, very specific. Rightly or not we had come to believe that we needed a new companion for Leica and that in a female Dalmatian we stood the best chance of finding a dog which would be a good match in terms of temperament and character, and one which by virtue of our past experience we could hope to offer a good home. Our initial decision to get a dog, or two as it turned out, was largely an emotional one. Certainly we had read up to a degree on what the realities of dog ownership might be, but the theory can only ever take you so far. In retrospect, I still think we were incredibly fortunate. Like Dalmatians sometimes do, we seemed to suffer from a selective hearing disorder. We shrugged off the advice about having two puppies simultaneously, about two bitches, about littermates.

Leica and Flash came to us in January 2002 and for twelve and a half years we got along. We had to adapt our social life a bit, our holidays usually now involved tents and campsites rather than anything more exotic, and wearing black clothes became less common certainly. We came to understand that dogs don’t ‘do’ Sunday morning lie-ins so much, that they have no concept of  ‘day off’ where walking is concerned, they didn’t feed themselves automatically nor could they tend their own wounds or medicate themselves when they were ill.

So at least when KiKi came to us her absolute dependence on us for her care and wellbeing was understood in advance. We chose her, not the other way around. The responsibility too was of our choosing.