Brandy

"List while I tell thee
Of the spaniel that blighted my life
Tra la la"

Look at that curled lip. Defiance. Obstinacy. Contempt. Truculence. If we had known how our fluffy springer spaniel puppy was going to turn out, we could have given him any one of those words for a name. As it was, we called him Brandy. We bought him for Sarah when she was about 12, but as she plunged into the maelstrom of adolescence, Brandy soon became "Daddy Allsop's Dog".
Spaniels are daft dogs. They are lively, fun, affectionate crazy creatures, constantly testing the limits. Brandy, when upbraided, which was often, would curl his lip, and if I said "Lip!" in a reproving tone, he would uncurl it, and immediately curl the other lip.
I used to take him with me to a promontory called Hengistbury Head, where I did a lot of conservation work. He would wander off for hours and sometimes, but not always, return at the end of the afternoon, responding to my bellowing calls "Brandy! You bad old bugger!". Sometimes he wouldn't return, and I would go home alone, not worrying about him, because I knew I would find him next morning curled up on a mat in the Ranger's Cottage (Thanks, Roger, wherever you are now).
He had a police record, this crazy untameable dog. Once he leapt the five-foot fence that enclosed our back garden. He was furious at the intrusion of an advertising blimp which had floated over. He chased the bloody thing, barking all the way to Christchurch some six miles away. I had to go and collect him from Christchurch Police Station. On two other occasions, he did a runner, causing me to go to the local copshop and apologise to the gendarmes. It's a wonder I didn't get a police record too.
He used to infuriate me, but in the best wheedling spaniel tradition, he quickly wormed his way back into my affections with a grin, a tail wag and a slobbering kiss.
All that was a long time ago. When I got another dog many years later, I opted for the quiet life: much as I love springer spaniels, I chose a placid black labrador bitch instead.