Our family has grown overnight. The new, furry, arrival comes in the form of a delightful bouncing border terrier puppy called Poppy who flew over from the UK yesterday.  It took quite a bit of planning and preparation to first find her, then get her over here that I practically feel like I’ve given birth…just with a lot less pushing.

Whilst bringing a dog over from England may sound like a wild extravagance, I felt that with young children – rightly or wrongly – I couldn’t risk a potentially badly adjusted stray and wanted an unscathed pup who could grow as they did.

I did in fact speak extensively to the SPCA in Singapore before embarking on the whole thing.  They had  a huge impact on my decision after begging me not to buy one from a pet shop here as apparently a high proportion of the animals sold in them, sadly, come from puppy mills. They said that even the dogs bought in from Australia and sold through the pet shops aren’t necessarily born in better circumstances.

It’s one of those things, isn’t it? Once you find something out like that, you can’t undo it.

After some laborious research I found someone in England who ran a boarding kennel, flew dogs all over the world and was a judge at Crufts. She brilliantly sourced Poppy for us from a bona fide breeder who we were able to visit when we were back in England this June. (The top picture is Poppy in Oxfordshire when we called in to see her; she was just two months old at the time.)

We collected her yesterday from Changi Animal and Plant Quarantine which was a minefield in terms of finding the building you need to go to – with everyone telling you different things while you got tangled up with reversing fork lifts and pick up trucks – but once you got to the right place, very easy with only a few minutes of document signing.

Absolutely worth saving $500, which was what Pet Movers were going to charge me to do it. Plus I couldn’t bear the thought of her being in her crate for a moment longer than necessary.

On the basis that badly behaved dogs, like badly behaved children, are intolerable, I have signed up for the doggy equivalent of Super Nanny/Gina Ford (actually via the recommendation of one of my readers). He’s called Lucas and we have our first session on Tuesday.

I’m looking forwards already!

**There’s a lovely lady here in Singapore called Marie who is involved with the charity D.O.G.S that helps abandoned dogs or dogs in difficulty. They are often landed with (huge) vet’s bills and reply on donations to help pay for them. It’s such a noble effort and a thoroughly good cause; I am going to make a donation to her current project – a dog called Wangcai. If you’d like to too, log on to: www.facebook.com/HelpWangcai**