A DOG lover is still fuming after his rescue Pomeranian was allegedly kicked by a postman.

Matthew Smith, of Felmores, Basildon, opened the door to the postman, with Teddy, who is only a foot tall and only has half his teeth, on the floor and Gina, a Pomeranian chihuahua, in his arms.

He reassured the postman, who seemed unsure about the dogs, that they would only bark and sniff him, but wouldn’t hurt him.

He said: “The postman isn’t a small guy - he’s six foot easy and looks handy.

“He handed me the parcel and I thanked him.

“Teddy goes and does exactly what I said he would do and I swear to you he kicked Teddy back into the house like he was a football.

“Now I’m a fairly level-headed guy but this is a defenceless dog so I wanted this guy to answer for himself.

“I asked him calmly what the he thought he was playing at and he just loses it.

“He’s telling me my dog is vicious, that he has a right to defend himself against being attacked, that I’m verbally assaulting him and he’s not going to deliver to my house.

“All the while I’m trying to calm this guy down because he’s huge and I’m on edge trying to calm down one dog who’s yelping in pain and the other trying to defend his brother.”

Mr Smith asked the postman to leave, which he did.

He reported the incident to Royal Mail, and was told that postmen are entitled to defend themselves against dogs.

Mr Smith said: “Now I agree completely with that. No one deserves to be put in danger at work.

“The problem is he wasn’t in danger. He was the danger.”

Thankfully, Teddy was uninjured, but was distressed by the incident and it took him until the next day to be back to himself.

Mr Smith added: “I’m pretty disappointed.

“I get that postmen have a right to be safe, and they never know who is behind the door, but that’s a two-way street.

“My animals and I have the right to be safe in our home, and that right was grossly violated.”

Royal Mail did not respond to a request for comment before the Echo went to print.