Double figures

Casey is 10 years old today.

Together we must have walked thousands of miles. I calculate it thus: say on average we walk 10 miles a week, that makes 500 miles a year. Over 10 years this adds up 5000 miles. But if I've exaggerated and it's only half of that, it's still a lot of miles.

He's the perfect companion. Along with me, he scales rocks and walls, wriggles through the gates and fences, negotiates swamps and streams, fords rivers, and travels (without enthusiasm) on buses. He never pursues cats, rats or rabbits, he gives a brief, polite greeting to other dogs and he is docile with children or people who want to pet him. He waits patiently while I watch a bird, stalk a butterfly or examine a plant. I wait patiently while he sniffs a bush and checks, or delivers, his important pee mail.

He's not greedy and is satisfied with one meal a day. He never takes titbits from strangers. He doesn't go down burrows. He never chases sheep. What he likes most of all is the simple, if repetitive, pursuit and retrieval of a thrown ball or stick or dog toy. Apart from the above, his days are spent sleeping in his bed under the kitchen table and barking at the postman. He has succeeded in keeping the postman at bay for almost 10 years now and that is a matter of some satisfaction to him.

Penblwydd hapus Casey (since you are a Fishguard-born dog) and many more of them. You are truly a King of dogs.