They really are. Bogart was a smashing old geezer, and the apple of his owner's eye. He was a red and white beardie gone pink with age. His owner's special Christmas turkey recipe included a basting with bourbon in the middle of cooking, and he'd been indulging in the bourbon, so he overbasted a little.

He and Bogie were across the kitchen hanging out when the bourbon caught fire in the oven. The explosion blew the door open and a ten foot blast of fire shot out, catching Bogie's fur on fire. His owner put him out with a kitchen towel. :)

I hope that Cholmondley gives you a surprise and lives a few years longer in splendid health. My friend EMA's English bull terrier lived to fourteen with a tumor on his spleen the size of a grapefruit for the last two years of it, so you never know.