Today’s star is King Kingsley, a rather lovely miniature longhaired shaded red dachshund. My, that’s a long list of adjectives for a dog so small, but I suppose it’s that old thing about big things and small packages. No, wait, can that be a saying? How could a big thing fit in a small package, unless it’s the Tardis.

Anyhow – though small, King Kingsley casts a long shadow in the world of social media.

Of course, long shadows are nothing new for a daschund, but you might be surprised how long this little fellow’s is. You can follow his adventures on Instagram (kingkinglsey), and join nearly 90,000 people when you do.

90,000 people following one little dog. If the dogs keep going at this rate, they’ll be ruling the world in no time.

And so they should.

Here’s one King already ruling:

He is undeniably adorable – but, with my portrait maker’s cap on, I could see King Kingsley, as with all dachshunds, would be rather tricky to fit to the vertical (portrait as opposed to landscape). He does tend to hang off at either end.

And, despite debating whether I should give in to the inevitable, and shift my Liberty print background round by 90 degrees, I ended up with this photo – one that is totally square, and so fits neither way. Hmmm.

Still, too cute to pass on, so, with a neat “ear-overboard” solution to the age-old problem of fitting a doxie to a portrait, we were finally underway:And here – a few stitches in:

And then there is a break in transmission, when for several hours, I completely failed to take any photos. And it really was several long hours on this one. Still – that’s royalty for you – I don’t suppose princess Elizabeth minded how long the embroidery on her wedding dress took, either.

And here is my only other underway shot;

(see those red flowers from the background print? that’s how you can tell, they’re still peeking through at this point).

All done:

and, with one last, parting sniff, he’s off.What a nose!