Bertie's new coat arrived in the post today. Life must be utterly baffling for domestic animals a lot of the time. A man, a stranger, rings the doorbell, owner opens door, takes parcel off man, shuts door. Man goes away. Owner opens parcel. No food -- disappointing -- but a small blanket. Owner puts blanket on baffled dog, does up straps, talks away in usual babble. Dog is too hot but can't get coat off. Finally owner undoes coat and takes it off.

What was all that about?

The verdict is that the coat is a bit big, but looks just the thing for snowy mornings. Nice and thick and warm, with a fake sheepskin lining. The stomach strap is slightly in the wrong place, will ... ahem ... probably need washing after each walk. Never mind.

Nasty shock when I got to work this morning: the parking garage was being policed. Name and job description? Sorry, you don't have garage access, go away. Yikes. I had to zoom across the road to park, then go and retrieve my car before that carpark closed at 6pm, pay £6 and then repark downstairs. What a hassle.

Because of starting work early I walked Bertie early too, and hit rush-hour. There was only one major problem, when Bertie took a major dislike to a collie-looking bitser.

What happened was B raced over to meet him, while I whistled and called. The other dog thought I was calling him and came running over to me. I think Bertie thought this dog was going to attack me, and rushed to my defence. He was really aggressive, growling and chasing this poor thing around while I danced after him trying to grab his collar and the other owner tried not to freak out. Finally got Bertie under control, whew. Then we met another little dog, this time wearing a muzzle. Not because it bites dogs, the owner said, but because it bites boys. Well, that's all right then! The muzzle came off and the two played happily together. Finally we met the Italian Spinoni (or whatever) and his lovely owner & had a chat. There were other dogs as well, it was really busy.

On Wednesday, my day off, we went to Blackness, had a very long walk nearly all the way to Abercorn. It was low tide so easy to walk along the shore. There had obviously been a storm-driven high tide, there were piles of seaweed up on the grass esplanade, and lots of new flotsam. Lots of shoes, for some reason, and many milk crates. I'd just read a magazine article about digital cameras, and walked along taking mental snapshots.

On the way back Bertie took off after a goose, chased it way, way out towards the water. Splocketta splocketta splocketta through the mud at high speed. I whistled and back he came, splocketta splocketta splocketta splocketta. His whole undercarriage was thickly plastered with grey, gritty mud. I managed to get him to plunge into the swollen burn, but he was still a mess. Back home I rinsed him off in the backyard, which he hated.