Driving home the other night, something scooted across the road forcing me to stop suddenly. I pulled over and found a very friendly king charles with no name tag. I pulled the leash out of the car and had a walk around trying to find someone with an empty lead or at least to see if the little guy would take me home. Instead he happily walked alongside me as if nothing was wrong.

I walked up to the street he appeared to come from and found another small dog owner, asked if they recognised the dog. She told me outright to keep it. The owner regularly lets the dog loose outside the house and he’s been hit by a couple of cars…

I took him home and filed a lost dog report to the police. I couldn’t guarantee this lady’s story and certainly didn’t want to end up in court for theft.

He happily wandered into the kitchen where I decided to investigate. He was filthy, thirsty, hungry, had to keep him and my dog for fighting for food and attention. He rolled over as we stroked him and I watched his black skin turn white as hundreds of fleas ran for cover. These were the biggest fleas I had ever seen, most 2mm long!

I hadn’t started looking for them, they were impossible to miss and no responsible dog owner would ever have let it get that far.

We took him straight up and gave him a soapy bath to get rid of the worse of them, then while my wife was drying him off I ran to the pet shop to grab some strong flea products.

The bath didn’t clear them completely as suspected but they were no longer hoarding. The bath was full of dead fleas and his coat was once again a beautiful black brown and white with all the curls in just the right places. We dusted him down with flea powder and once the half hour passed and he was brushed down, applied some spot-on treatment. (They did say not to use two products but the powder was relatively weak lasting only a couple of days and the chemicals different so all should have been safe.) We kept him contained last night in an effort to keep stray fleas, eggs and larvae in a known area.

This morning he was almost flea free. He’d almost stopped scratching and must have had the most peaceful night’s sleep ever! I found a couple of live ones still, but I really had to search so hoping the spot on treatment will continue working as the 24 hours suggested hadn’t elapsed.

All the while, rooms used were dusted down with the remainder of the flea powder and left overnight for hoovering the next morning. The two dogs were playing happily although occasionally had dominance dances when we were around. When I went to the loo, I got up the stairs, turned round and had too faces looking up at me, it was absolutely adorable!

This morning we had a call from the owner. I tried to address the flea problem politely. (How to tell someone their house is full of fleas without criticising their cleanliness. I know that fleas don’t necessarily mean they’re unclean but I think she took it that way). She casually said that he must have collected them in the street. I just thought that yes, the first ones he did, the other thousands come from neglect and are breeding, nesting and growing into adulthood in your carpets… but I didn’t say anything… She sent her son round to collect and I had no choice legally but to hand him over. I also gave him the rest of the spot-on treatments and again tried to mention about his house being full of fleas. These may have been too subtle but he was reading the packet as he left.

It’s heartbreaking to do that, but in the eyes of the law, that dog is their property and I have no right to decide whether or not they should have him.

I’ve vacuumed the entire house moving all the furniture and looking forward to repeating the process every day or two for 3/4 weeks I didn’t get a thank you, a handshake or anything. More to the point, I feel like I’ve lost a new friend. He was a lost, itchy, dirty little thing who went to happy, sparkling and almost void of those pesky things. I know I did the right thing on all fronts but didn’t want to let him go.

If we find him again (which I suspect we will) I’ll send him to the dog pound. The owner will have to pay them £70+expenses. That will hopefully teach them to keep a closer eye on their animal and if they can’t afford or are not willing to pay, he’ll be rehomed under strict rules to someone who will treat this fluffy bundle of joy the way he deserves.