A couple who are our neighbours two-doors-down have a very young border collie called 'Logie'. They take him to training classes and apparently the instructor thinks he's a 'vocabulary dog'. If one looks straight ahead and mutters a word such as 'ball', 'bone', 'doll', 'wooden spoon' he'll rush off and fetch that very object. They're gradually increasing his vocabulary and he can now identify twenty or so unseen items when sent from their sitting room into the garden to fetch them. It's his absolute favourite game.

He also seems to like our cat Smokey. If he's not with me on our garden bench, Logie is looking all over for him as he passes by with his owners. When he appears, he's ecstatic. Smokey seems to quite like him too.