Squinting in the sun with his goofy smile.

Magnus

In November of 2009, a puppy was born in the hills of the New Territories in Hong Kong. He was lucky, along with his brother and sisters, to be picked up by the rangers, who brought them to the Hong Kong Dog Rescue (HKDR) for homing. Sally Andersson, the director, named the puppies after the letter M. This little puppy was named Magnus.

Around the same time, Pauline, in an example of reverse psychology suggested adding a dog to our pet collection of two cats (Teddy and Tiger), but explained in great detail the many, many disadvantages of owning a dog – not least that the children would tire of walking it and it would be left our domestic helper, Carina, who was incidentally not keen on the idea, and us to walk the dog. But at the same time, she trawled the pages of the HKDR for dogs that needed homing.

Pauline eventually came upon a picture of a cute puppy with a houndy snout, pendulous ears, and a smile. His name was Magnus. Magnus was to be presented for adoption at the regular Sunday afternoon homing day on the terrace of a pet shop in Ap Lei Chau. Pauline thought we should take a look.

We arrived on time, but the dogs had already made their appearance, while potential owners were circulating the pet enclosure. We spotted Magnus, who was being held by a small boy under one arm with another puppy under the other. We told Nicholas to place himself by the boy and if the boy put Magnus down, Nicholas was to grab him. Unable to choose between the two puppies, Magnus was eventually placed on the floor by the undecided boy only for Nicholas to scoop him up. Magnus was ours.

As a puppy, Magnus was a little peculiar looking. His head was black, brown and a little white on his nose, but his body was mainly white with large black patches, not unlike a Friesian cow. It was as if the wrong head was put on the wrong body, but as he grew, he filled up and morphed into a very handsome dog.

As a young dog, he was mightily fast. On his daily walks in Cyberport Park, he would often tease dogs to chase him and then leave them for dust. In hindsight, this was surprising since while we were in France, several years later, we discovered that one of his hips had no socket and it was only muscle that was keeping the leg in place. A hip replacement followed and we had a bionic dog.

Magnus was a family dog and not much interested in other people or other dogs. His tail never wagged, except for the family members especially when we returned home, nor did he bark much. For many years, we suspected that he could not. Magnus treated us like a sheepdog would. On family walks, he would frequently look around and count us off by nodding his head to make sure no one strayed. If someone hid, the brakes would go on until we were together again. When we used to walk around the Peak path and the children walked ahead, off leash, he would run backwards and forwards to keep a tab on us.

On leaving Hong Kong in 2016, Pauline and I began a golden time with Magnus, when we travelled to Europe for nine months along with our two cats. While the cats could be left behind, Magnus came everywhere with us. And what a star he was, attracting attention amongst the dog loving French and Italians! I cannot think of many film stars that would be spotted at 50 metres and have 4 women swooning over him with squeals of ‘bello!’. If we went into a boutique or shop, he was fawned over and nobody else got much service. How many other dogs, would be escorted into the ornate lounge of the Westin Excelsior in Florence with his lucky owners for tea? 

Odd for a dog was that he hated going out in the rain, swimming, and muddy puddles, preferring to keep to the paths. When he came home after a walk, he would stop by the shower room near the front door. He would not move until his paws were cleaned or was given a full shower if it had been an unavoidable mucky walk. Consequently, his white and black fur always looked immaculate. Very undoglike! 

When we settled in the UK in our new home, we would walk him daily around Primrose Hill and Regents Park. He often walked far from us as he mooched around with his nose in the undergrowth. If he spotted another dog owner with treats, he would sit right in front like a ‘good dog’ in dignified begging. Frankly, he was a bit of a foodie and always angling for treats or what he could scrounge from our meals at the dinner table, which was his only vice.

Magnus was youthful looking and often mistaken for a much younger dog, but sadly appearances mask health issues.  Last November, his health began to deteriorate, slowly at first, which gave the vet and us the impression that it was merely old age creeping up. Sadly, it quickly developed into something much more serious, and it became clear that there was nothing we could do.  We were blessed with Magnus for twelve happy years. Farewell our lovely faithful companion and friend.