You'll only do that once, Archie...

Yesterday evening the neighbours had friends over for a barbecue. Archie knows the neighbours, and it’s only lately he’s started barking at them. Not just a wee woof, but a yap-yap-yap-yap! And there were new people with loud voices. And the cat was running around chasing popping champagne prosecco corks.

I was ready with my pistol. One squirt. That’s all it took. Then he just sat at his fence and looked at them. There was a wee growl when the cat was running around retrieving corks, which is understandable. I was so pleased with him, because if we hadn’t hit this unnecessary barking on the head, when he was put to bed he would have gone out the dog door and yap-yap-yap-yapped late at night.

Continuing the sitting in bars training (him, not us - we're well trained), we took the bus along to Summerhall for lunch, but there was a hummungous big truck parked right across the outdoor seating area and extremely tattooed men with trousers down round their bahookies (this surely must be dangerous when moving heavy loads) were unloading stage gear. We just had a beer and the nice barman brought Archie a dog biscuit.

We walked through the Meadows, past lots of toddlers, water pistol at the ready... We even walked very close to a group of drummers who were VERY loud. He wasn’t phased. Though he did want to play with a bee - can you see it?

We popped into The Cloisters for a pub lunch. Again the barman brought him a biscuit for being a good boy. We had fish and chips, and I kid you not - each serving could have fed a family of four for a weekend. I think they should warn old biddies about oversized meals.