Don’t diss Dilyn… he’s just a teenage tearaway, says animal rescue centre
DILYN the Downing Street dog has been under fire in recent weeks, but the animal rescue centre he came from says the briefing against him is “quite farcical”.
“Dilyn isn’t yet two years old,” Eileen Jones of Friends of Animals Wales tells us, adding: “He’s a teenager in dog terms, pushing the boundaries and getting in to mischief. That’s what dogs do. To compound it he’s a terrier or as we call them terriorist.”
Dilyn has been the subject of hostile briefing lately. It was reported in the Mail on Sunday that he had cocked a leg over a departing aide’s bag at a Downing Street garden party, with disputed claims it led to a row with Carrie Symonds, the Prime Minister’s fiancée. It was also reported that he caused £1,000 worth of damage at the PM’s country residence Chequers by chewing on the furniture and carrying rare books in his mouth.
Yesterday Boris Johnson told reporters at a secondary school there is no chance of Dilyn being sacked, confirming “the dog stays”.
And now Dilyn has got backing from the charity which rescued him. “Dilyn has had a huge impact on ‘adopt don’t shop,’” Jones explains, continuing: “If a scruffy little terrier with a wonky jaw can live in Downing Street then that means there is a place for every unwanted and abandoned dog. There are thousands of dog owners all over the world laughing at his antics.”
She adds, though, that terriers “are challenging little dogs and can at times try their owners’ patience”. Maybe it’s just a phase.