You may recognise this scrappy little pup. I’ve posted about him before.

This is the first photo I took of him over 20 years ago.

I’d been overseas for many years, and for a multitude of reasons ( all stories in themselves), I decided it was time to head back to the UK. ( Was that wise? Yes, another story there)

For the last 6 months of my stay, I rented a house in Palavakkam, just off the East Coast Road, heading south out of Chennai city.

( I owe a great deal to a taxi driver, Michael, who found and secured the place for me. It was perfect. I’d like to thank him more, but have so far run aground trying to trace him….but I digress)

The van from The Blue Cross of India would drop me at the end of my road each evening. Giving me some time to decompress before I reached home.

One night, this little pup was in the street, hanging out with the big dogs amongst the traffic.  I scooped him up and brought him back with me…..There’s much I could write about here… but this post is how he got his name.

A lovely old friend and workmate of mine said she would have him when I returned to the UK….She was called Mary. So I called him Joseph. Joe.

On the afternoon I took him over to her house he had a great time hanging out with her kids, and then he raced up to me, sat himself at my feet and said,’ can we go home now?’ …We did, and he came with me and my big older boy Tony to England.

We shared a life for 14 years ❤️