What a lovely morning. The birds at Queens Park, normally preparing for a days foraging for breadcrumbs, are all resting on the island on the far side of the lake. A solitary woman struggles to stop her young infant from learning to swim. The day has that quiet feel to it, a relaxed, easy going day to sit back and enjoy.

Unfortunately the sun is also shining which means it's going to get blistering hot. The weather people have taken great delight in pointing out how urban areas heat up under sustained sunshine. I think I know that already. Better yet, they're displaying a telephone number for those who want to know how to survive hot temperatures.

A young lady appeared from a side street as I wandered down to the music store. Brunette, athletic build, walking with a confident poise. If that wasn't attractive enough, her denim breeches were so skin tight they must have been cutting off the blood supply to her ankles. It's too much. I turn away and wipe the sweat from my brow.

It reminds of an occaision, many years ago, when I was taking our dog out for a walk, something I used to do two or three times a day. On that particular day, the temperatures were veryu high as well, and my faithful hound plodded along ahead of me in a determined effort to make it home to his water bowl.

Now our old dog was fairly obedient, up until the heady scent of bitches in season caught his nose. Then he abandoned any vestige of domestication in a primeval urge to do something... He was never sure what. He would try nonetheless.

Off in the distance an old couple were walking their dog too. They shooed away another dog wandering by himself, and clearly the golden labrador was lapping up the attention. My dog was approaching, veering to one side in curiosity at the pleasant smell wafting in front of him. The old couple waited to defend their labradors virtue with walking sticks at the ready.

I called my dog's name out and commaded in as stern a voice as I could manage "LEAVE!"

Our dog looked around as if to say "What? Oh... All right then, if you want, I'm too hot to argue.." and plodded past temptation, once again putting cool fresh water on his list of priorities.

"What a well behaved dog!" The old couple agreed. If only they knew....

The Wolf's Mating Call

It's become fashionable these days to draw attention to the fact that our domestic dogs, man's best friend, is little more than a wolf in drag. It is true. Our relationship with canines goes way back to the Ice Ages, with wolves and humans learning to co-operate on the hunt, and our ancient ancestors keeping stray wolf cubs as pets to rear as personal hunting companions or whatever.

Our dog, in his younger days, was asleep on the flagstones by the fire, his favourite place for a snooze. We heard the people passing outside and clearly they had a dog with them. Suddenly our dog lifted his head, stared up into space, and began to make a mournful howling noise that reduced us to hysterics immediately. Poor little lad. He only wanted to get to know her...