Actually, yesterday’s visit to Vanessa and Kendall’s house wasn’t a dog’s dinner in any sense – we had a lovely afternoon tea of cheeses and biscuits – but Roland’s sister and her daughter happen to have four dogs between them… Hector, the young Staffordshire opportunist, amused us by taking his place at the table whenever a chair became vacant. His antics did him no good (except to draw attention to himself), whereas Boris’s more subtle tactic of leaning against my leg and licking my foot was a tad more successful. Ssh…