ITV broadcaster Natasha Kaplinksy, 49, who lives near Haywards Heath, has been rushed to hospital after being bitten by her Coton de Tulear, Dot. But, the star, who has 47 animals, insists she still loves her. Here, the Strictly champion explains to Louise Flind why she's like a real life Dr Dolittle
'We first decided to get a dog while I was working at the BBC about 16 years ago. This was before we had children and were living in Fulham. My husband Justin was having one of his man flu days and went to pick up the Tibetan terrier we'd chosen called Molly. But he saw her brother Benson and put him in the car too.
Having those two dogs as a couple in our early thirties was just so exciting. We took them to puppy training classes and they became so good, they’d literally follow me everywhere.
Then we had children and when they were very young we moved to the countryside to a house near Haywards Heath. Faced with all this lovely space, we decided to buy them a labradoodle puppy for Christmas so Scribble arrived dressed in a Father Christmas hat. That was six years ago and I was desperate for more puppies and came up with a fund-raising idea to convince Justin to let me.
Very sadly my brother-in-law has Parkinson’s disease and we allowed Scribble to have puppies so we could raise money by selling them to our friends and family.
The children both helped a great deal. In fact, Arlo set up a camp bed in the kitchen and slept with Scribble for three nights waiting for the new arrivals.
She gave birth to nine amazing puppies, which was a dream come true for the children. We'd often find Kika in with the puppies and not in her bed when we thought she was in her room.
We kept one of the puppies, Doodle, who's now four, and the rest went to friends. My parents have one, called Monty, and we raised about £8,000 for Parkinson’s. My parents come here a lot with Monty. They have two other labradoodles so there’s very often more dogs in the house than people.
We also have Dot, a five-year-old Coton de Tulear and our six-month-old puppy, Teddy, who's a Bernadoodle. I’m not entirely sure how our children persuaded us to get Teddy but when a child puts a picture of a little puppy in front of you going "oooh look at this, it’s amazing, its available tomorrow," it’s very hard not to say well why not?
'Dot is in my bad books. She was supposed to be this lovely little lap tap and she's turned out to be the fiercest. Recently I tried to separate her from Molly, fighting over a bone, and she bit me. I ended up in hospital'
Molly is the Queen of our dogs and since her brother Benson passed away three years ago, she’s been absolutely fixated on me. Now aged 15 she’s pretty much blind and almost entirely deaf so she operates by smell and follows me constantly. If I go out, she gets very anxious so we’re constantly finding baby sitters for her.
Dot is in my bad books at the moment. She was supposed to be this lovely little lap dog and she’s turned out to be the fiercest of everybody. The other day she got upset with Molly, fighting over some bone, and I tried to separate them and Dot bit me by mistake. I ended up in hospital in Haywards Heath with a sling and a tetanus jab so I wasn't very happy.
But I couldn't be without my dogs. We work very hard and I’m not interested in shoes or jewellery or cars. Animals are our passion and they are my luxury. I would have far more animals if I could persuade Justin – so if that makes me a Dr Doolittle, then yes that’s me. Life is a bit chaotic with them in it but never boring.
My perfect day starts in wellies and ends in stilettoes. The whole feeding routine is about 30 mins and starts just before 7am in the kitchen with the fluff bunch, then the cats, the ducks, chickens, alpacas and finally Mable the cow and her companions Stella, Bella, Ella and Cookie the sheep. They are on winter standing at the moment and so they are on a slightly different part of the farm and by the time we get up to their fence they are eagerly awaiting the vegetable scraps and their nuts at the gate.
The dogs have all been taught to sit down and wait for the food. Once it's placed in front of them they don't move until I either wink at them or give them another signal that it's time for breakfast. They have learnt there's no point trying to eat without that invitation and so their manners are immaculate.
Before bed they have a midnight feast and if they haven’t had this by 9pm then somehow they do find their way up to the bedroom and say "you’ve forgotten, where’s the food?"
We’ve all got our separate relationships with each dog. Molly is mine. She was with me when I had our children, she was with me when we’ve had highs and lows and she moved from London to Sussex with us, so she is definitely my dog. Justin thinks Scribble is the perfect dog and Teddy is top of the children’s list at the moment because he's a puppy. Doodle is a very sweet boy and Dot when she’s not in a bad mood…
I’m one of those people when I’m driving and I see a dog I have to stop and check what kind of dog it is – I feel like a terrible dog stalker and its usually labradoodles that turn my head. We got Dot, who’s a Coton de Tulear, because we thought at that point a little dog would be quite fun. Little did we know!
All of our dogs are white, which is the worst thing as we live on a muddy farm. To stop them getting dirty, I bought some amazing fleeces which makes them look like the Spice Girls as they're all different versions of each other. It's hilarious but the fleeces are incredibly practical and saves me washing the dogs all the time.
I probably sound mad enough already but I do talk to them on a walk. It’s like a mutual understanding – if you’re ever unhappy or stressed the dogs always pick it up. I always talk to Molly obviously – she’s a different category, she’s not really a dog.
10 Facts about Natasha and her dogs
1.Molly has privileges the other dogs don’t have like going on chairs and upstairs.
2. The dogs are never fed at the table. They have their feeding station where they cue up with their big eyes ‘come on, surely a little biscuit…’
3. Dot lived in my pocket for her first 4 weeks.
4. Doodle and Scribble watched Joe’s Biden inauguration on the TV.
5. We have some woodland where we walk and we go to Sheffield Park.
6. Our vet is Fairfield in Uckfield.
7. Our groomer is Victoria’s in Piltdown. I was really jealous the dogs got a hair-cut before I did when lockdown ended.
8. Pets Corner in Lewes is our pet shop.
9. Dot is in charge of the whole family and really resentful about it.
10. Nobody should wave a puppy or rescue dog anywhere near me because suddenly they find their way into the house.
