Friday

Waiting for her breakfast and tea have been particularly onerous for Isis these past two weeks.

This is is because Human has been uncharacteristically consistent in working on the Hairy One’s manners.

Always ravenous, Hairy One finds it annoying to wait while Human faffs around absent-mindedly sprinkling the Zylkène and Plaqueoff daintily onto the Burns and onto the Chappie, sardine or cheese side dish. “Dammit!” she’s thinking, “Is she going to b. garnish it with parsley?”

Naturally, Isis has to fill in the minutes. So she leaps up and down yapping in her own sweet ear piercing fashion or spinning and tearing out her hair.

Time for a change. Each time we yap or spin, Human downs fork, walks away and lurks behind the cupboard for as long as it takes. (The record number of retreats behind the cupboard in one session is nine.)

Isis stops.

Human returns and resumes getting breakfast/tea.

Yap!

Human downs tools again.

And so on.

Tonight, amazingly, Isis waits for her tea, tail wagging, and doesn’t make a sound.

What a well-behaved little animal!

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