Puppy Angel

Do you believe in angels?

I  do. They walk amongst us every day. They come in all shapes and sizes, and they have a tendency to show up and help us out when we least expect them to.

A little furry angel recently entered my life. He's a puppy, and is just the gentlest, sweetest little person you could ever hope to meet. Forgive me, but when I talk about my dog, ‘he’ can never be an ‘it’. His name is Maxi, as in Maximus, even though he’s really a bit of a Minimus, standing the height of a decent bottle of red to the top of his curly brow.

The idea was that he would be my son’s dog. And my son loves him, and truly believes that he is his dog. At night they even snuggle down and go to sleep together, but you know, on the quiet, he’s really my dog.

All day long, he’s there by my side. I type away, and he snoozes on his beanbag, chews on random objects - my slippers/ bookcase (bizarre)/ the leg of my desk or plays with his toys as we listen to playlists on Spotify.

When it’s time to do the school run I pull on my boots and we take a detour through the park. I’ve never been much of a Gym Bunny, but I’m always up for a walk in the fresh air, even when we have a grey West London drizzle. It’s great. He chases around, barks at the big dogs and then runs behind me for safety when they bark back. As angels go, he's definitely one of the cheekier ones.

Maxi fills my days with fun and affection, and he has slowly reinforced my faith in humanity. You know that people aren’t that bad when they can't help but smile with delight at a cute puppy romping along the pavement. And the number of folk who want to stop for a chat … ‘How old is he?’ … ‘What’s his name?’ … is unbelievable. All that big city reserve just melts away.

So here’s to you Maxi, my very own little household angel.

Bonny x