Zoë Bowyer

Since Christmas I’ve been meaning to call in to visit D’s granny; she had told me that she had a picture of her old dog Rory for me to look at. By the sound of it Rory was a much loved and well travelled dog, and a bit of a scamp. He was one of those legendary wonderdogs, much in the same way that Danny was our wonderdog.

Well, the excuse to visit arrived when Betty’s hearing aid broke in two and her usual hearing aid repairman (D’s dad) was at a rugby match, so D was called in to help.

We reminded Betty about the picture and she went and fetched it. D said later that he was expecting to see a black and white photo and was a little surprised when she presented a colour shot of a dog sitting upright in a chair - Rory’s picture, she said. Turned out that the carefully framed picture was actually from a chocolate box, but was ‘as like Rory’.

I felt slightly conned (and Betty a minster’s wife!)