The most unlikely star

Kasey Carlin was determined to give rescue dog Maggie the love she deserved

- ANNA MATHESON

As I scrolled through Instagram, I took in the famous faces with their fast cars and designer clothing, each account boasting thousands of followers. And then I clicked onto my dog Maggie’s page. With her stitched-up eyes and one ear, she doesn’t look like your average social-media superstar. But my precious pup has more than 400,000 followers on Instagram, and I bet not many of your typical celebs have a story like Maggie’s.

I first heard about her in September 2018 when my mum bounded into the lounge shaking her phone at me. ‘Kasey, we have to have her,’ she said, showing me a picture of Maggie. The photo had been posted on Facebook by the charity Wild At Heart Foundation, where I worked sometimes as a dog foster mum. Looking at the photo, she was clearly in a really bad state and I knew she was in need of some looking after.

I’ve always loved animals, getting my first dog, Tootsie the Chihuahua, when I was just 15 and studying Animal Behaviour at college and then university in Bristol. After moving home to Brighton to live with my mum in 2016, I set up a doggy daycare business and soon started offering help with behaviour. At the charity, I helped nervous dogs learn to be around people and other pups. ‘I don’t think Mishka’s ready for another dog in the house yet,’ I said to Mum. Mishka was our Alaskan klee kai, who we’d rescued four months before, and I worried that eight paws padding around the house might be a bit overwhelming for her.

‘I just couldn’t stop talking about Maggie’