In 2002, my sister Joanne and her new husband, Dean, moved into their first house together and decided to get a dog.

Enter Vinnie (named after Dean’s favourite footballer Vinnie Jones) who was about to become Dean’s best friend, Joanne’s first ‘child’ and my nemesis.

WARNING – this blog post is about bereavement and my own personal way of dealing with grief. If you’re going through something similar and don’t think you’re ready to read about that then leave it for another day. In your own time.

If you hate dogs I think you may need to hit the back button now because you’ve definitely come to the wrong place. Move along you weirdo!