Will the huge surge in demand for puppies and kittens during lockdown lead to a lot of abandoned pets when life returns to normal? That’s the concern of various professional bodies and animal welfare organisations. The Kennel Club has warned those searching for puppies on its website that a dog is for life, not just the coronavirus, while Battersea Dogs Home initially slapped a ban on rehoming, allowing only fostering during the crisis. ‘Now isn’t the right time to bring home a puppy, or make an impulsive decision to get a pet,’ warned Holly Conway, head of public affairs at the Kennel Club.
The Young family acquired Malinky, our five-month-old cavapoochon, just before the country was placed under lockdown, and I don’t think there’s much danger of her being abandoned once this madness is over. Caroline has already declared that she prefers sharing a bed with Mali to me, and my four children are deranged with love. My 16-year-old daughter Sasha holds her up for my inspection, eyes shining, saying: ‘Don’t you think she’s just so sweet, Dad? Don’t you just love her so much?’ Well, no, not really. On the contrary, if I were a bachelor who’d bought her to keep me company during my virtual house arrest I would be sorely tempted to drop her off at an animal shelter on my return to work.
Caroline has already declared that she prefers sharing a bed with the dog to sharing with me
To begin with, there’s the industrial quantities of poo she produces. For such a small dog, it’s really quite remarkable. Her bowels must have some weird, Tardis-like quality. If she confined these hourly deposits to one place, it wouldn’t matter so much. But she’s turned the back garden into a minefield. If I venture to my ‘home office’ after dark — in reality a garden shed — it’s like tiptoeing towards a Taleban stronghold in Kandahar.
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