Everyone is home this Christmas and that is such a treat. I am planning nothing much! Christmas lunch is sorted – it will be delivered today – wonderful nut roasts from Cook..brilliant… no matter how long and lovingly I labour, I cannot ‘homemake’ one that tastes better, so why try! Veg and roasties, stuffing and pud. What more could we want?

Nellie - grand old lady of 16 - senile and loving it.

Well, actually, the majority of our guests being dogs, probably a great bowl of dog food and something tasty to chew, followed by a long sleep piled in front of the log burner (of course the humans will be doing much the same in terms of snoozing).

Wellie 14, deaf unless there's food on offer

There is one possible glitch in all this. One of the canine guests is merely 9 weeks old. I haven’t met him yet, but I am sure that in common with most puppies, he will not want to sleep when all the other dogs do…and will want to play with any stray ears or tails that he can pounce on.

Puppy - wears his heart on his sleeve

Then of course, when everyone else is busy eating, he will fall asleep in his, or another dog’s bowl.

Lucy- escape artist, loves to chew through electric fences to get to the other side

So, to recap, we have seven people with us for Christmas, and eight dogs, five live here all the time and are used to rubbing along together,

Rosie, tries hard but never gets it quite right

with Rosie keeping order – or chaos depending on your point of view. Alfie, a regular guest has perfected the art of ignoring anything or anyone if he is not in the mood,

Alfie - a pug, not that you can tell - favourite sulking place is with his head inside furry slippers

and Chester, also a part-time pack member, is adept at fitting in anywhere at any time and making everyone love him.

Chester - wants to be everyone's best friend - time will tell what he makes of the new puppy 'brother'

What none of them knows yet is that we are about to introduce  a joker to the pack –

Cav - the unknown entity!

Watch this space…