We are an animal-loving family. In our household, we have 3 dogs, 5 cats and two turtles. Two years ago, our male basset hound, Pancho passed away, bitten by a vicious snake who had gotten into our garden. Pancho had a terrible temper, but did have a sweet side of him. As he got older, his temper got worse, so when he passed away, we consoled ourselves that perhaps it was for the best, as we had a new baby in the house then, with O just a few months old.

Pancho was my husband’s dog, really, and he was the only one in the household who Pancho actually listened to, and never dared bite (yes, he bit us all- nothing serious though). So since he died, it was my husband who missed him most, and whenever we’d see a basset with his blackish-tri-colour markings, it was very apparent.

Then last week, my sister (who’s even more animal crazy than we are, with over 50 cats and two labs who are treated like humans) sends me a link to a petfinder site, showing photos of a litter of bassets who were born earlier this year, two days after N’s birthday, three days after O’s!

On top of the nice birthday coincidence, which scores high points in our family (Jasper, our persian, has the same birthday as O, and Otto, our golden retriever, the same as my husband!), one of the puppies also had very similar markings to Pancho!

So on Saturday, N and I went to see the breeder ( a nice couple who obviously loved dogs), and met the puppy, who was the friendliest of the litter. N and I both fell in love (how can you not? look at her photo!) and promptly laid a deposit. We’ll be picking her up in a few weeks - in perfect timing for my husband’s birthday!