I should know better

It wasn`t until people began congratulating me on actually managing to get a Chin bitch that I realised that I will be campaigning a male dog with a girl`s name. The name "Shelby" is not exactly common up here and I hadn`t given it too much thought.

It won`t worry Shelby. He has taken over. He owns the place. He is accepted by the males and has charmed the pants off the girls. He has investigated the whole house (Chins climb like cats) and whenever he finds something valuable and chews it into pulp he has the innocent good manners to bring it to me and show me. He is completely unaware of the difference between right and wrong. (Papillons are very aware, but usually react by thinking - "this is forbidden and wrong and wicked and leads to eternal damnation so I`ll do it really quietly, behind a chair...").

He has at last given up making amorous advances to Allegra. She used to whirl round to bite his nose - but he hasn`t got one, so her teeth would close on empty air and Shelby would favour her with a wide Chin grin.

No doubt about it, Chin are different. Just as clever, but not so frantic.

And they have different tastes. This morning I was out with them when I heard Shelby crunching. Crunching hard.

Now there is always a dish of assorted biscuit out for them, but I couldn`t think of anything quite that hard in it. I called Shelby, who came, crunching harder still. Eventually I managed to prise out a few remaining fragments......

Shelby eats snails. En coquille. Without garlic butter, even.

Well, the garden can only benefit.