One thing I forgot to mention about our Rio. We love the little bugger to bits.

He comes and lies on the hearth rug in my study and let's me tell him all my problems. We agree on courses of action for everything from equitable access to cancer screening across England to whether to risk planting potatoes yet, in case we have more ground frost to come.

Yesterday he walked up two mountains, covering over 10 miles and to be fair, this morning we had to literally push him out for his morning piddle.

The farting is insignificant compared to everything else about him.





(His predecessors, mongrels, farted too. But trust me, they weren't in his league on that score.)