Caesar’s reign of laughter: A husky tale that will have you howling

“They died instantly.”

In a horrifying twist of the classic talking motor-vehicle tale Cars, Lightning McQueen ate Mater, perhaps taking out his anger after a disappointing race or something.

Things have gone a lot better with Caesar.

Family dog Caesar is a three-year-old husky, and was a massive surprise to Luke.

“One day my parents left for a while, me and my brother were just in our room, and then my parents called us out,” Luke said.

“There was just a little puppy running around our garden.

“I had no idea, they left for about five hours and then there was just a dog.

“We were freaking out, I was ecstatic.”

Caesar is a little bit shy, particularly around new people.

Luke attributes this to the family having to go into COVID-19 lockdown quickly after acquiring the dog.

“He didn’t really meet any new people, so he’s quite timid with people because he didn’t have that interaction with other people and other dogs,” he said.

Caesar went a bit stir-crazy during lockdown and “destroyed everything”.

During this period he acquired a strange obsession for socks, and would create a game of chase by stealing them and running around until the family got tired of chasing him.

“When he takes something, you’re running around for 45 minutes trying to get it back,” Luke said.

“He always used to take Dad’s slippers, so we set a ground rule straight away: do not eat shoes.

“We had sprinklers — not anymore.

“We went to turn it on one day and flooded the garden.”

To this day, the Southalls still don’t know where said sprinklers ended up.

While Luke was taken by surprise when his parents brought Caesar home, he did know the family was thinking about getting a dog.

He said they were tossing up between a husky and a black Labrador.

“When Labs are young they require constant attention, and I’ve already got a younger brother, I don’t need another one,” he said.

Luke said Caesar was mostly an independent dog, until it came to food or walk time.

He warned prospective husky owners that they should be prepared to walk their pawed pal two or three times a day, every day.

Given they are sled dogs, and are bred to run for an eternity, they need to be active.

While this stereotype about huskies proved to be true, Luke questioned some others.

“Huskies are very intelligent dogs, but I think mine is broken,” he said.

“I’ll put it this way: Caesar is the stupidest smartest dog.”

Luke wouldn’t change him for anything though.

“He has his stupid moments and they’re absolutely hilarious,” he said.

“For example: running into walls, running into doors, running into windows — the list can go on.

“He chases his tail around, randomly gets zoomies or just runs around in a circle for no reason.

“He is just so funny.”