On a cold November night in 2015, I was driving home from a meeting when I spotted a flash of blonde at the side of the road. I slowed down and realised it was a dog. Driving on, I thought perhaps the owner was just behind. But it then occurred to me that it was 10:30 at night, in South Wales, in November... it was freezing.
So I turned the car around and parked up near to where I'd seen the dog. When I got out of the car, sure enough, a skinny little creature started creeping towards me. Terrified by me, shivering and looking pretty much on death's door, I convinced the dog to come take a couple of biscuits from my hand. All I had in the car were a tin of Fox's Biscuits that I'd won in a raffle that night. Thus started our adventure with this little dog who would become our Princess, Foxes.
Fox weighed 16kg, you could see every rib, every vertebrae. She had a huge lump on her front foot, gunge in her eyes, nails too long and her tail permanently between her legs. This is the night we found her...
Over the next couple of weeks, we nursed Foxes back to health (I'm talking £400 vet bills) and despite plenty of interest in fostering her, we decided we'd fallen in love with her. The vet believed she'd been on her own for about 2 weeks and was approximately 2 years old. After a lot of googling, we guessed she was probably a Saluki Lurcher cross. Based on her speed, her intelligence and little attitude, the super model breed of the dog world seemed to be right on the money. By Christmas we were starting to see a rather hilarious personality...
Like most dogs, all Foxes wanted was love and a warm home. Try as we might, our bed was hers, our sofa was hers and so was our bank balance. But it was all worth it for the crazy amount of affection that she shows towards us.
Time with her wolf pack is very important to Foxes and we realised we should have called her 'Dora' because my god does this dog love to explore!
We sometimes think about Foxes not being around. Nobody to come home to when we finish work, nobody to steal our popcorn or demand a walk...
And despite the fact that she can sometimes be a very naughty little girl, everyone who knows her loves her and every stranger she meets thinks she is a stunner.
And they're right. From skinny little stray on the side of the road to Welsh Princess of the hills, this little girl has come a long way. And we can't imagine life without her!