Doggy pals

I'll do until the real thing comes along, but basically what Scrap loves more than anything else is another dog to play with. It doesn't have to be a particularly sophisticated game – ruff and tumble and sniff-chase will do – just so long as he's playing it with someone hairy with stinky breath.

Never knew the name of this redhead, met in Shobrooke Park, but they went the full 15 rounds together

The redhead finds a swamp of doghenna to slop in: a muckstep too far even for our less-than-fastidious hero

Eoife is a 9-year-old bitch belonging to my old school friend Clive. They spend all their time together when I go to visit.
Here, they share a stick in the woods behind C's house early this year.

Romping can be tiring.

Monty's mum is a glass artist who lives in the village. He's more or less the same age and size as The Scrap.

Another round with Monty by the pond in the MG.

Velma the Wizsla lives down our lane and is just a few months older than Scrap: when either goes missing, the other's garden is one of the first places to look. Something about her Hungarian aristocratic bearing, though, means that there's no chance of getting her to get down and dirty.

Prince, the whippet from the Community Stores, has the Scrapster beaten for speed, and here adds insult to injury.

Sadly, I have yet to get a photo of him with Bobber, a two-year-old Jack who lives down the road and who is perhaps his favourite of the local dogs. Be sure you will see it here first when it happens.