A dog is brightening up the lives of bin workers by waiting every Friday to greet them on their weekly collection in east Belfast.
And videos of one-year-old golden retriever Maddie being petted by the workers when they arrive every week to pick up the bins have gone viral on social media.
One video has received more than 10 million views on Instagram, with comments left online by people living as far away as Brazil and South Korea.
Some dogs do not like people in uniforms or hi-vis jackets, but Maddie loves them.
“It’s not just her tail that wags, it’s her whole bum that goes – she just loves it,” said Katelin Fiddis, whose family own Maddie.
“She is one of those dogs … she loves attention, she loves to say ‘hello’ to people.”
It means that every Friday when Maddie hears the first distant sound of a bin lorry approaching, she runs to the door of the family home in east Belfast eager to get out.
She then positions herself at the edge of raised garden at the front of the house, near to where any bins are left out to be collected.
The height of the garden means the Belfast City Council bin workers do not need to lean down to pet her.
One of them, Marc Doran, said: “We’ve a couple of friendly dogs (on the bin round) but not as friendly as Maddie. She’s one of a kind.”
So much so that when Marc started the round last year, his colleague Nathan Wilson immediately told him about Maddie’s enthusiastic welcome and that spending a bit of time with her had become part of the job.
As he stroked the dog on one of his regular Friday morning rounds, Nathan said: “There’s nothing as special as this. We look forward to this.
“Every dog is different. She’s just brilliant. I would stay here to five o’clock. It wouldn’t bother me.
“I think she loves everyone but I think she likes us a wee bit more.”
This was confirmed by the Fiddis family.
Parents Ian and Ruth, daughter Katelin and son Josh all adore the pet dog.
Josh was surprised at the outpouring of love from around the world on social media, after he created a dog account on Instagram.
He said: “I made the Instagram just as a silly thing, just to show my friends and then Katelin took it over and the videos of the bin men blew up.
“It’s mind-blowing. I never thought people would want to watch videos of a dog as much as they do. It’s brilliant.”
Katelin said the videos started to go viral as soon as footage with the bin workers was posted.
She said: “We probably got about 15 likes, maybe one comment, back in the day. And now there’s videos that are reaching ten million views and she’s got 20,000 followers.
“As soon as a binman appears it’s like ‘wow ten million views’.
“They’re very busy obviously doing their big rounds but the fact that they would dedicate 20-30 seconds to say ‘hello’, you can just tell that it makes Maddie’s day and she’s got a wee smiley face and a waggy tail.
“We’re getting comments from people saying ‘I’ve had a really, really hard week and I’ve just seen this video of Maddie and it’s completely changed my outlook and I feel so much better’.”
However, it seems there is no such thing as a perfectly behaved dog.
“She’s a bit of a rascal,” said Katelin.
“When she’s walking on the lead, she does like to pull still. She’s not the perfect dog … but you can tell she’s just got a heart … she’s become like a therapy dog for the entire neighbourhood which is just lovely.”
Maddie turns two in September but, for her, every Friday morning feels like a birthday when she hears the sound of the bin lorry arriving.
