Sunday

The day begins well. Isis wakes up at 08.00. After she’s been outside I make coffee and return to bed for a Sunday lie-in. Since I forget to put the stair gate in place she follows me. Like a fluffy white moth she flits around the room searching for some clothes to munch.

I fetch toys for her. She happily chews on these before returning to bed for her Sunday lie-in. So we’re both happy.

Unfortunately the sun is very bright. When we reach Highbury Park there are stripy shadows in all directions.

Poor Isis is very apprehensive. When encouraged she walks but very mechanically, without enthusiasm. None of the now characteristic joie de vivre. No excited sniffing, no tracking,  leaping or bounding. Just a tense plod. We leave the park early .

But even at home she is clearly bothered by the light. She’s very jumpy and can’t settle anywhere. She stares anxiously at the glass oval in the front door and flinches. She is irritable and barky.

I decide to give her a sardine with her evening’s dry food and, foolishly, open the tin before it’s her tea time.

Most of the dogs I have known would follow their noses to the source of the enticing smell, whine a little and wait. But poor Isis is furious.

Having sniffed the air she begins to spin and attack her legs. Several times I get up to calm her but she will not be mollified.

Suddenly I realise what I have done and understand her behaviour. It’s food rage brought on by the lovely smell of the elusive sardine which has not been offered to her.

When I give her the bowl she attacks the food like an angry woodpecker. Bash! Bash! Bash!

Thirty minutes later she is still grumbling and growling. Then there is silence. She is lying in the darkness of the hall.

After a while she migrates to the front room which is in darkness. There she stays.

Isis came from the Aeza cat and dog rescue and adoption centre in Aljezur, Portugal. For information about adopting an animal from the centre, contact kerry@aeza.org or  www.dogwatchuk.com