An Overnight Stay

Our Jo and John were going to a ball at a place in Much Wenlock, Staffs. Peter and his girlfriend, Claire, were going to Skegness for the weekend. Who goes to Skegness in November? Come to think of it, who goes to Skegness at all? There was a reason for them going but, I've forgotten what it was.

So, Travis needed to come for the night. He duly arrived at 1.30 p.m. with his bed, his bowls, his food and his lead. He bounded in and panted up to the cat who hissed at him but didn't run away - well done, Maddie. As his mum and dad drove away he watched through the dining room window but there was no whining and he just trotted to me for some fuss.

An hour later he was put on the lead and walked round the block by Nik and Laura. Laura was due to go with her dad and grandparents to Nottingham to watch a Notts Forest football match so she and Travis had a quick cuddle before she left.

Later in the evening, after another walk with Nik, Travis was sitting beside my legs. I was stroking and rubbing him, as I do with all animals, and he lifted up his front paws and leaned against my legs in a sitting position. As I rubbed his tummy he, slowly, leant further and further back until, eventually, he ended up on his back on the floor. What a great, soppy lump!

Laura came home just before 10 and went straight to bed. Both Nik and I went up an hour later and so did Travis, who spent the night on Nik's bed - his own pet-bed remaining empty in the sitting room.

This morning we had Sunday breakfast. Nik and Laura, who are non-meat eaters, had quorn bacon and eggs and I had real bacon butties. I fried a bit of bread in my bacon fat for his lordship but, no, he turned his muzzle up at that. He did not, however, refuse the chocolate bones and meaty strips, that we'd been storing here, when Laura got him to do his obedience tricks for them before I gave him a good brushing - which he loved.

At 12.30, Nik put his lead on him and they set off for a walk. Laura didn't fancy going and was playing on her wii. They must have been gone about 15 minutes when the heavens opened. They got back just after 1 p.m., soaked, and at that moment Travis's mum and dad arrived to collect him.

Travis looks like a dreaded pit-bull. He has strong jaws and enormous teeth and he's muscley (well, he's a bit fat, really, but his shoulders are broad). If he had belonged to a swaggering idiot I have no doubt Travis could have been trained to be a vicious brute but he's a sweetheart (neutered) with a gentle nature and very winning ways who has a healthy respect for cats.

Having Travis is a bit like having another grandchild. I can borrow him, enjoy him and spoil him - then hand him back to his "parents". I like it.