I should know better

Still recovering after Crufts. It`s a long journey and a very long day - judging began at 8.30 and ended at 6.

And all three did well for me.

As we struggled in sometime after 6.30, Marcus looked up and inhaled deeply. I could see what he was thinking - "Thousands of dogs - and half of them female ! Roll over and beg, girls - Marcus is in the building !" He had no doubt as to why he was there - the silly business in the big ring with the lead was purely incidental. He was 4th in his class, and quickly taken down to Discover Dogs, a section with pens of amiable representatives of every known breed are available for the public to get to know them.

Florian was in a class of 26. By any calculation this would take over an hour. I made sure I was standing beside someone I could talk to, while Florian - the new macho Florian who has Done It - strutted and swaggered in front of the other inferior males, taking a bit of a chance as they were all older and more mature than he. Despite immaturity, he was 3rd in a really good class.

I then had time to go down and check on Marcus in Discover Dogs. I found him revelling in being cuddled by all and sundry. I mentioned how he liked it to the lady in charge. She looked embarrassed and pointed to two sulky looking Papillon ladies in the pen.

"Actually we have to hand him out to people. If we put him back in the pen with the girls he......well, molests them. We don`t want the children to Discover Too Much about Dogs...."

Marcus smirked.

Back up through all the packed halls to get Allegra ready.

Now, normally getting Allegra ready involves taking her outside and walking her until she is exhausted. You can`t do that at Crufts. So she went into the ring like a firecracker on springs, totally out of control. At no time were all four feet on the ground. The other little ladies looked demurely shocked at this demented bouncing creature. Not as shocked as I was when she went Best Bitch Puppy in Breed.

So, a good day.

And then the long bus journey home with stops at truly rancid service stations. All went well until I was decanted in the hotel carpark on the open stretch of moor - and then the blizzard hit. I was very lucky to find a passing taxi driver who recognised me, even totally covered in snow, and realised I was in trouble, and even luckier to be helped by a drunk who lurched out of the hotel, naked to the waist (really!) in the driving snow to help pack in all the dogs and paraphenalia, shouting "I saw you oot there wi`a`they wee cats ! I love wee cats, so I do !"

Home just in time. An hour later and no traffic could move. I threw all the dogs out in the snow - especially Marcus who needed to cool off - and then got them and myself to bed about 3am

And in the morning we had eight inches of the white stuff.