I’m in Mallorca! Trying and mostly failing to relax. So it’s a shorter edition of Nesting today. Shorter but sweeter.
Say hi to Dennis, the tiny terrier belonging to journalist and author Sophia Money-Coutts. She’s just written The Year of the Dog, a book about him which Jilly Cooper has already described as ‘absolute heaven,’ so he’s a pretty big deal. Over to you, Dennis.
HOME COMFORTS WITH… DENNIS MONEY-COUTTS
Hi Dennis! So, where do you live and how long have you lived there for?
I’ve lived in Crystal Palace, south-east London since last summer. Upsides: big park, lots of foxes, people put water bowls outside their shops. Downsides: no butcher.
How did you find your home?
Funny thing. One morning last June, I was happily scampering about another garden with my brothers and sisters when a tall, quite loud lady arrived at my house with a stuffed racoon and an empty Quavers box and drove me HOURS and HOURS to this new house, where I immediately weed on all the carpets to make it smell like home.
Who is at home with you?
Me, most importantly. But also Sophia, my human. And also at least once a day, and sometimes two or even three times a day, someone she calls Mr Amazon knocks on the door. He must be quite shy, Mr Amazon, because he never comes in, but I bark a few times to let him know he’s welcome, anyway.
Your favourite thing about the house and your biggest niggle about it.
Her bed, especially when it has clean white sheets on it. What I really like to do is shuffle right up under the pillows for a little rest after digging in the garden. The other day, I left my bone under there as a little surprise, too, but she was surprisingly ungrateful when she found it. I don’t like the weird angry snake that sometimes comes out of the cupboard. Too noisy. She gets it out if I’ve been digging and I bark back but it never responds. Sissy.
Where did you grow up? Did anything about your childhood home inspire your current home?
Just outside Birmingham. I’ve lost the accent though.
How do you feel about household chores?
Pretty good at chores, actually. What I most like to do is take items out of the bathroom bin and put them in other places that might be helpful for her – loo roll tubes in her bed, finished toothpastes on the stairs, cotton wool pads scattered across the carpet. She can’t say I don’t do my bit.
What’s your current TV obsession?
Clare Balding. One word: woof.
Best home comfort meal?
Nice pair of knickers from the laundry basket.
What is currently on your bedside table?
Earplugs. Ideally the foam ones. She used to leave these out every morning for me as a breakfast snack, but after I ate my 14th or 15th pair she started shutting them away in the drawer. I heard her grumbling about this once to another human in the park, who laughed, pointed at his dog, an XL Bully called Angel, and said ‘Ha! That’s nothing. This one had nine remote controls in her first five months.’ And that was the first time I ever fell in love.
Background noise in your house?
She likes Radio 2. Always Radio 2. I don’t mind Vernon Kay but Jeremy Vine has some pretty weird discussions, doesn’t he? One the other day on whether dogs should always be kept on the lead, whether dogs should sleep in human beds, whether dogs should be allowed in restaurants and so on. He seems unhealthily obsessed with dogs, that man. Needs to get out more.
My garden is….
Full of holes. Not sure who made them. Almost certainly next door’s cat.
Have you ever lived elsewhere in the world (or country) - what was the most memorable thing about your home there?
We went to Spain for a holiday last year. Didn’t like it. Too hot. Didn’t speak the language. Nasty foreign food. Had a holiday romance with an Italian Golden Retriever in a hotel on the way home though, so it wasn’t a total waste of time.
Your favourite home from home?
There’s a place in West Sussex where she takes me, sometimes. With another big dog and also smaller, more feathery dogs that make a weird clucking noise. I picked one of the small dogs up by its neck once – just very lightly and she seemed to be enjoying it – but Sophia got cross and shut me in the downstairs loo, so I’m not allowed to play with them anymore.
Read more about Dennis in his human’s new book – The Year of the Dog, by Sophia Money-Coutts.
That’s it for now. One child has jumped in the pool with his ‘favourite pants’ on and the other is eating soil. See you next week when normal service will resume.
Dx
Who is Dominique Afacan?
A very good question. Dominique (that’s me) is a writer and solo mum of two, based in London. The idea for the Nesting newsletter came about because after ten years of flitting around the world as a travel journalist, I wanted to share my new-found excitement about hanging out at home. I am also the author of Bolder – Life lessons from people older and wiser than you – a great birthday present, if I don’t say so myself – and available to buy here.