BOXER dog Biff is something of a celebrity. After landing the role of Buster in the heartwarming John Lewis Christmas advertisement in 2016, Biff became an overnight sensation—the two-minute spot, which saw the exuberant boxer bouncing up and down gleefully on a trampoline, was the most-watched Christmas TV advertisement worldwide on YouTube that year, gaining more than 20 million views. Within minutes of its release, ‘Buster the Boxer’ was trending higher on social media than the US election results, announced the day before.
‘Biff loves the attention,’ reveals owner Jan Patten, who has three boxers in total: Biff, Betty, and Darcey. ‘He’d never done anything like that before. We only auditioned because my agility trainer saw the advertisement and suggested we go along. It was three years ago, but he’s still sometimes recognized—he’s been asked for so many photographs that, now, whenever he sees someone holding a camera, he sits and poses.’
Playful, energetic and silly, boxers are natural comics—the perfect star for an advertisement designed to make people smile. Then there’s the matter of those lovable faces. ‘They’ve got such expression,’ says Mrs. Patten. ‘That’s what sets them apart. They can look so different from one minute to the next. They’re real clowns, constantly making us laugh. You have to have a big sense of humor to own a boxer—the biggest sense of humor, perhaps, but once you live with one, there’s no other dog.’
Denne historien er fra December 25, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra December 25, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
