Our puppy has no respect for the two-metre rule

Since the beginning of the lockdown, Caroline has been congratulating herself for having bought a puppy ‘just in time’. She doesn’t mean it would have been impossible to get one after 23 March, because visiting a breeder is not an ‘essential’ journey. She means that a puppy is a great source of entertainment, as well as solace, when you’re cooped up in your home, particularly if you have children. It’s like having our very own therapy dog.

She’s a cavapoochon — a cross between a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, a toy poodle and a bichon frise. A handbag dog, in other words. We had an interminable family discussion about what to name her, with the children seemingly engaged in a competition to come up with the most clichéd suggestions. Our eldest son, notionally the owner of the dog, wanted to call her ‘Biscuit’ or, failing that, ‘Cookie’. Our 16-year-old daughter wanted to call her ‘Caly’ — short for ‘Calypso’.