Pets
If we allow dogs at weddings, why not a python?
Three women in my Tuesday weights class are getting married. While we squat and thrust and fling our kettlebells around,…
Confessions of a dog hater
‘Do you like animals?’ asked the woman at the door, collecting for a zoo. ‘No, I hate them, they keep…
Why are vet bills so ruinously expensive?
Dennis refuses to step on to the scales at the vet. Perhaps he’s nervous about his holiday weight. The upshot…
Dogs belong in the bedroom
‘No dog of mine will sleep on my bed,’ I swore, before Dennis came along. People who allowed dogs on…
The lunacy of emotional support animals
Naturally, the start of the new school year is often stressful for pupils. Perhaps those anxious children returning to their…
How big business pushed up vet bills
I was on my way to a Pilates class when I spotted Paul waving at me urgently from across the…
Don’t bribe your dog with treats
‘Do NOT look Lulu in the eye. Keep your voice low and soft and ignore her barking. Do NOT make…
Confessions of a catnapper
As Christopher Snowdon recently pointed out, the past few governments have had a habit of passing laws that are either…
The naming of cats
It took a long time for cats to gain the same serious status as dogs, but by the 18th century they were starting to have personalities, says Kathryn Hughes
The Spectator’s letters page is hazardous
Question time Sir: Your leading article ‘Sense prevails’ (13 April) is a valuable précis of the Cass Review into NHS…
Dog ice-cream: proof we’ve lost our minds
During the few hot days we had in June, I came across my first tub of dog ice-cream nestled among…
Feline mysteries
In his vast survey of felines wild and domestic, Jonathan Losos reveals, among much else, that a cat’s purr can convey hunger or panic as well as pleasure
Pie in the sky
Frieda Hughes adopts an unfledged orphan bird, regarding him as ‘a magical creature’ – but few others find him so engaging
A dog’s life
‘I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by cat videos,’ begins Henry Mance’s How to Love Animals, winningly.…
Real life
Watching a woman driving a dog past my house like a carthorse is just another ‘new normal’ of lockdown. This…
Dog pounds
The hidden costs of the lockdown puppy boom
Pet peeve
Let animals be animals
How many dogs are there in Britain?
Model hobbies Asked what he did to relax, Boris Johnson claimed that he liked to make model buses. Some others…
The middle-class cats that are ditching meat
As I write, my cats and a visitor from the next street are hammering into their food, at nearly £5…
A hell-cat in heaven
Over the weekend I officiated at a funeral. Earlier in the morning there had been lowering rain clouds, but by…
The dogs of peace
From ‘Food dictatorship’, The Spectator, 27 May 1916: Nobody would like to see the whole race of dogs exterminated, but…
My soppy, dopey, deadly predator
Leo, the Hungarian Vizsla my wife brought home unexpectedly last year, is approaching his first birthday and not getting any…
