Yes, a dog is for life, but both my pets arrived at Christmas

In 1978, four years before yours truly was even born, the charity Dogs Trust came up with the slogan “A dog is for life, not just for Christmas” in the hopes of reminding people that the adorable little doggy wrapped up with a bow was still going to need toilet training while you’re still nursing the Mary, Mother of God of all hangovers.

- KAT BROWN

That reminder (and me) has now aged well into its forties. Still, overoptimism about exactly what owning a pet involves – and the cost - continues to lead to dispiriting numbers of animals being handed over to shelters, given away online, or simply abandoned. Watching the Christmas edition of The Dog House, Channel 4’s inspired take on Pet Rescue meets First Dates, I was brought to tears by a pair of sweet girls who had simply been tied to a tree and left - and then again, when they were on their way to new homes by the episode’s end.

I know the rules, and yet my own pets have both broken them, with the happiest outcome. In 2019, I came out of a therapy session helping me to deal with failed IVF, which meant my husband and I would not have children, and I encountered a very thin, very small calico cat near Oxford Street. I’d worked in the area for 15 years and never seen a cat of any kind, so I called an Uber and took her to the vet to be scanned for a microchip. No microchip, and her teeth were broken - so another very kind Uber driver took us to my vet in south London, where she had an operation and recovered in our spare room.