It was great to be back home after our holiday. We’d been away so long that I had forgotten the layout of our house.

TPR took me through to the small sitting room. He’d arranged for it to be decorated while we were away. It was almost perfect. Just one wall needed attention: the rabbit and squirrel patterned wallpaper had been hung upside down. TPR admitted that this was his fault. He confessed that he had misdirected the decorator.

To take my mind off this mishap, TPR led me outside to his vegetable patch in the garden that we shared with our neighbour. He told me all about mowing the lawn and introduced me to two cats: a small black one and a large tabby. Both escaped into the street when I failed to shut the gate properly.