Our border terrier was a sociable animal, and he made us more sociable animals too
Our family had never had a dog. We were most definitely not a dog family. We were a cat family, a rabbit family, a guinea pig and hamster family, even a goldfish family. We were a small domestic animal family, something that was easy to care for and largely contained. But then we got a dog, and we became the dog family I never thought we could be.
My mum had grown up in Hong Kong with retired alsatian police dogs, so the decision to have a dog was largely based on her fond memories. One midsummer day, we found ourselves driving to a breeder near Biggin Hill, on the outskirts of London, to pick up Max, the border terrier (family lore was that the early months he spent next to an airfield caused his lifelong tic of barking at aeroplanes). He was the pet I’ll never forget, simply because, to our family, it seemed as if he was the first pet that we had ever really had.
