Real stories · The necklace that's us

Fourteen years of Winnie — and finally a necklace that says exactly what she means to me

A little silver figure hugging a little golden dog — that's my necklace, and anyone who's loved a dog for fourteen years will understand it on sight. Winnie has seen me through retirement, one hip, two weddings and every single morning since 2012. People who don't have a dog think that's sweet. People who do have a dog know it's the plain truth of the thing.

I own jewellery for occasions. I'd never owned anything for HER.

Then I found the Corvalissea from a British label called York Boutique — a small, beautifully finished pendant of a person crouched down, arms wrapped around a little golden dog, on a fine silver-tone chain. There's a black-dog version, and one with a cat for the cat households.

It's the pose that does it. Not a paw print, not a bone — an actual hug, the exact shape of every greeting in our hallway for fourteen years — which is why complete strangers understand it instantly. It's small and light enough to wear every day, and the chain adjusts, so it sits just where you want it over a jumper.

Not a paw print — an actual hug, in silver and gold — which is why everyone who's ever loved a dog reads it correctly in about one second.

It's £19.95 in the sale — half the usual £40, which for something I now wear daily is nothing at all. A fortnight to send it back and free delivery, I checked, though it was never in danger.

At the coffee morning, Margaret leaned in, looked properly, and went quiet for a moment. Her Bella died in the spring. I didn't say anything; I just wrote the name down for her. Hers arrived last week — the black dog, like Bella — and she wears it, her words, 'so she still comes along'. I had to stir my tea rather firmly after that.

If there's a dog — or a cat, or the memory of one — at the centre of your house too, do have a look. With the gift season coming it's the easiest present in the world for a fellow dog person. The Corvalissea is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 230 customers, in golden dog, black dog or cat — and at half price they go quickly.