Fringe Dog meets Nina Gilligan

i once met a goldfish who had terrific powers of recall because he used his bowl as a memory palace !!! do you have any top tips for remembering ???

Goldfish are much misunderstood fish and have better recall than humans realise. I struggle with memory and I have tried lots of strategies like making lists and then forgetting where the list is. One hack you can try and that works for me is leaving visual reminders around the house or the car. Because if it’s not in my line of sight I forget. So, I can remember right up until bedtime that it's my friend’s birthday tomorrow but then forget in the morning, so sometimes if I feel anxious, I just put something, anything in an incongruous place, like a shoe next to the kettle and then I wake up in the morning and I think why is there a shoe next to the kettle? Oh, it’s my friend's birthday?

do you have a dog ?!?

I have a three-year-old cava-poo called Nessa. I have two children and I got Nessa just after my youngest daughter left to go to University. I was tidying the cellar and I found one of their childhood toys and started uncontrollably sobbing. I knew I was struggling with empty nest syndrome, and I thought a puppy would be the answer. We already had a beautiful rescue called Scruffy and my husband was none too thrilled at the idea of another dog, but I harangued, sulked, and cried like a three-year-old until I got my own way. My daughter Neve insisted that as the puppy she should be allowed to name her. As we are both huge Gavin and Stacey fans she came up with Nessa.

Fringe Dog illustration by Lauren Hunter

what characteristics does nessa share with her namesake from gavin & stacey ???

When Nessa arrived, she had two gorgeous pom-poms of fur on her chest and we nicknamed her Sugar Tits like Dave Coaches (Nessa’s on-off boyfriend from the show). We live in a small community, on a small row of houses, and furry Nessa, much like human Nessa, likes to know what’s going on and is often at the window shouting ‘O, what’s occurin?’ to passers-by. 

they say dog is a (wo)mans best friend - do you get on better with nessa than with other hoomans ?!?

Yes, I get on with Nessa more than most other humans. I think every comedian should have a dog. A comedian’s job is to make people happy and smile and wag their tales – dogs get it.