Something yellow and blue was peeping out of the undergrowth in our back garden. Was it a parrot? Yes, a parrot, in Edinburgh, at the tail end of summer!

I ran to the kitchen to grab the camera only to be waylaid by yet another wildlife discovery: a juvenile badger making its way down the hall. “Goodness, I thought, “that cull down south must be driving all the poor creatures over the border.”

I attempted to rouse TPR, asleep in the sitting room, with a call to come and witness all this unusual wildlife. Our little grey dog, rather than TPR, responded. He trotted into the hall where he came face-to-face with the badger. Equal in size, I wondered which would attack the other first. It turned out that the badger was the aggressor.

I shouted at TPR again “Come quickly and save your pet!” just as the poor little dog went limp, trapped between the badger’s jaws.