On her beast behaviour

“What a good dog,” they said at the vet when Stella got her check-up and injections.

Ah, if only they’d seen her five minutes before: barking, pulling my arm out of its socket and trying to stick her nose in every doorway we passed.

A bit like when watching the kids behave impeccably at parents’ night, I felt simultaneously proud and puzzled as to why she can’t be like that more of the time.