Cromer, a University of Miami facilities manager, told the station that he and his wife untied the flag from the railing when they saw the cat clinging above them.

When the oldest one surfaces at about midday, I am still sitting in a chair watching the cat on the sofa.“The cat’s not well,” I say.“Isn’t he?” the oldest says.“Dad thinks he’s about to check out,” my wife says from the doorway, being unnecessarily faithful to my phrasing.“So take him to the vet,” the oldest one says.

He plays eccentric Edwardian artist and illustrator Louis Wain, a lively and arguably brilliant man who might today be considered neurodiverse, and who certainly suffered from depression.

As the front door closes behind him, my own summer holiday begins: a week with no dog sleeping on my feet or barking every time the bell rings, or staring at me intently as I try to write, or read, or watch TV.“I hope they make it down OK,” my wife says.

Animal welfare activist Dominic Dyer started the campaign, and said he has been in touch with Mr Farthing after his wife tried to leave Kabul.

My wife sits up in bed.“What’s going on?” she says.“The dog is barking,” I say, standing up to look out the window.If you open the front door at night, the dog will often run out between your legs to chase the fox down an adjacent lane.

Getty ImagesWhen Prince Philip married then-Princess Elizabeth over 73 years ago on Nov. 20, 1947, he assumed the arguably difficult role of a prince consort, one very few men have held in royal history, requiring him to forever live in his wife’s shadow.

“I think that looks pretty good,” my wife says, standing back.“In the box,” my wife says.“Fix what?” the youngest says.“These are dog attachments, but whatever,” I say.He looks at me, and the youngest one, and then me again.“I’m good,” he says.

Queen Elizabeth II received her first corgi when she was seven (Picture: Lisa Sheridan/Studio Lisa/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)In 1933, when Her Majesty was seven years old, her father King George VI brought home Dookie, a Pembrokeshire Welsh corgi.

Later that night, I find my wife at her desk, looking at what appears to be a website dedicated to the adoption of abandoned dogs from around the world.“What are you doing?” I say.“Look at Lucky!” she says.“Are you trying to adopt a dog?” I say.“To live on our farm!” she says.“But we have a dog,” I say.

"President-elect @JoeBiden and his wife @DrBiden won’t just be bringing their German shepherds, Major and Champ to the White House,” a Friday evening tweet from CBS Sunday Morning read.President-elect @JoeBiden and his wife @DrBiden won’t just be bringing their German shepherds, Major and Champ to the White House.

It is just after 11pm and I am in the garden in a downpour that began precisely as I stepped outside, searching for the tortoise by the light of my phone.“I suppose it would be terrible if he were to sadly pass,” my wife says.

A while ago, my wife and I took the kids to an agricultural fair, which is like a regular trade fair except you spend £30 on chilli jam and pretend to a salesman that you are going to come back and look at a ride-on mower again, even though you have plastic grass (more of that in another column).Part way through the day, we went into a barn full of people selling rabbits.

The puppy we’re looking after for friends appears at the garden door with a shoe in its mouth.The dog sits on the garden table, lip curled in a sneer, while my wife runs the trimmer over its back.“It’s for dogs,” my wife says.

I set my alarm for 7am to release the puppy from the cage at its accustomed hour, but when it goes off, my wife is already downstairs, the tiny dog running figures of eight round her ankles.“I knew you’d be down here, sucking up to it,” I say.“Did you want to be the one to let it out?” she says.“No,” I lie.“The extractor fan man will be here soon,” she says.“That’s today?” I say.

The actor recently brought home a new family member — an adorable kitten named Caramel Thakur — feels that this bundle of joy has brought a lot of love and positivity in his life, even in the lockdown.

Photograph: Tom Hawking One and a half years on, we have fostered some 30 cats: a cavalcade of kittens, two nursing mothers with their babies, two separate cats named Pebbles, a couple of senior catizens, and a strange beast by the name of Cami who liked to lick my head every night, without fail, at 3am.

On 30 April – possibly owing to Kevin saying his voice was a little huskier than usual, but more likely because of the government’s desperation to meet its 100,000 daily target by the end of the month – he was told he was eligible for a test and was invited to go to a centre in Cambridge the next day.

‘The man picked him up and he was a little dog with big fluff coming out of his eyes and I was told that because he was blind and he couldn’t be used on the farm or be sold as a pet.

Shapiro is among thousands of volunteers who answered the call of animal shelters nationwide to foster a pet amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic.The number of animals needing homes is likely to climb, said Susan Schroeder, of owner Bronx Tails cat rescue in New York City.