My name is: Sirius
I came from: Cyprus
Now I live in: Oxfordshire
My favourite things are: ANY food (but especially cheese), snoozing, playing chase, getting a fuss and sunbathing
Follow me on Instagram: @sirius.underdog

Sirius’s story

As soon as we moved into our own house my partner and I started looking for a dog. We’d both grown up with dogs and knew we wanted to adopt a rescue dog. After months of speaking to different charities, we saw a freckled ginger face with the kindest brown eyes looking longingly up at us from the Underdog website. When we read his profile he just seemed too good to be true and at the mention of his ‘Fancy swishy tail’ we fell for him.

We submitted our application and I said to my partner ‘I’m not getting my hopes up, I imagine lots of people will want him’. After a home check in Zoom and a couple of nervous days of waiting we got the email we’d been hoping for – Sirius was coming to live with us! We fluctuated between excitement and panic, we were finally getting a dog after years and years of waiting! But we hadn’t met him before and he’s travelling all this way to be with us, what if doesn’t like us?! The team at Underdog were wonderful and supported us with every question and concern we had.

A couple of weeks later it was time to get Sirius from the meeting point. The volunteer that met us prior to collecting Sirius was kind and friendly and put us at ease immediately.

We were warned that he might be nervous when he first arrived, but when it was his time to leave the van he jumped out and trotted straight over to us, tail swishing away excitedly. I sat in the back with him, stroking his ears and reassuring him he was on his way to his forever home and was going to be so loved. After a few minutes of panting, he flopped down next to me, rested his head on my lap and snoozed for the rest of the car ride home.

When we got home he happily jumped out of the car and spent the next ten minutes wandering around the garden and checking out all the new smells.

We’d been told that he’d been found on the streets by the dog warden so were unsure if he’d lived in a house before. He was very nervous of going through the door, but after about half an hour he’d built up the courage (and curiosity) and made it over the threshold. Once he was inside, he slowly sniffed his way around the house and after a couple of hours he curled up in his bed, heaved a big sigh and went to sleep. We were lucky in that he was already toilet trained and walked well on a lead right from day one. Initially he was nervous around people (especially men) but his confidence has grown leaps and bounds and he now expects a fuss from everyone that walks past him.

Sirius came into our lives a little over a year ago and we honestly couldn’t imagine our life without him now. He spends most of his days finding patches of sun to lounge in around the house and although his absolute favourite place to sunbathe is our garden table!

He is the sweetest, cheekiest boy with the kindest nature and spends most evenings cuddled up on one of us on the sofa as he thinks he’s a lot smaller than he is! If anyone out there is thinking about adopting a dog, we can honestly say it’s the best decision we’ve ever made. Seeing his confidence grow and encouraging his true personality to shine through despite all the challenges we've faced together has been so rewarding.

Thank you Eve and everyone at Underdog International for everything you do and for bringing our fluffy ginger pooch into our lives!

- Liv