Earlier I’d overheard the dogs speaking English to one another with Teesside accents, so when they scampered down the sand dune I saw this as my opportunity to ask them where they were from. They suddenly turned very shy and refused to acknowledge me. When their owner approached I asked what was wrong with them.

The problem, it appeared, was that one of the ‘dogs’ was actually a beaver, and that I should know that beavers don’t speak to human beings.