‘I’m not barking — Rex deserved a fitting send-off’

It was a send-off fitting for... well... a pensioner’s best friend.

Devoted dog lover Chris Birmingham-Doody was so fond of her canine companion that, for 24 hours after he died, she put him lying in state — on her kitchen table.

In what was as close as any dog will ever come to a state funeral, the pensioner laid out her beloved Rex on his favourite red cushions at her family home in Castleisland, Co Kerry.