'My dog helped me make a new life after I suffered crippling anxiety'

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“I’d been an actor for 15 years in London when I started to suffer from social anxiety,” explains Polly, 39. “I found myself increasingly incapable of getting on stage. “So in 2017 I decided to leave the city.

I also got myself a puppy, remembering how my childhood dog, Little Bit, had brought me so much happiness. I’d originally planned to call my new pup Bertie, but he was such a chill guy I gave him the name Dude instead.” Polly initially relocated back to her family’s farm in Northamptonshire, but she’d always nurtured a dream of living by the sea – and it was to Margate in Kent. “I didn’t know many people there, so it was a bit daunting, but with Dude by my side I feel like I can do anything,” she says. “Thanks to him, I was forced to go out and chat to people on the beach – he’s a good ice-breaker! “He’s not a needy or greedy or barky dog; he just likes to be near you – or preferably sitting on you!

He also sleeps like a teenager – I do have to push him out of bed if I want to go out for an early-morning walk, but once he’s out he’s loving life.” 'Dude brings me joy and he makes me feel brave – he's my superpower!' – Polly Chromatic Dude is also the reason Polly opened her colourful lifestyle shop in Margate’s Old Town, which she named Little Bit after her first dog. “I wanted a job where I could have Dude with me all the time – and he’s the perfect shop mascot because he adores people,” she says.