Southpaw

Scientists recently discovered the gene that increases the odds of a person being left handed. There’s plenty of reason to suppose that the same thing applies in the dog world as well, and Australian research has suggested that identifying whether your dog is left or right pawed (or indeed, ambidextrous) can help when it comes to planning their training (and needless to say, much else besides).

Like Stewart Copeland and David Byrne (and I know that at least one of you will want to add Paul McCartney!) Bingley is definitely a southpaw. Leonardo Da Vinci was left handed, and so is Brad Pitt. Bing of course is much better looking than Brad Pitt and nearly as creative as Da Vinci, especially when it comes to devising ways to get my attention.

Not that he has to try very hard: when he stands in front of me holding one of his toys in his mouth and and gently tosses his head in Marilyn Monroe come-on style, it’s difficult to resist him.

I think that Bill Bryson would enjoy Bingley’s company, there’s always something to laugh at; and Franz Kafka would certainly have appreciated some of his more unusual behaviour. Why, for example, has Bing started lying on the kitchen floor with his head pushed under the sofa and then begun to quietly sing?

I think that he must like the way it sounds; though he’s also started eating bits of the sofa as well, so maybe he hasn’t got the acoustics properly configured yet. These artists: they’re such perfectionists!

Bingley can run faster than Steve Cram, catch like David Gower and plays football like Diego Maradona.

Of course when you start looking at famous left handers the list is almost endless (though I must especially mention Julianne Moore…just because). But really there’s only one southpaw who matters to us, and Bing’s left-pawed creative eccentricities are simply one more reason to love him.