When I’m not sleeping, eating, playing, sniffing or guarding, I like, no demand, to be patted. After all, one has to feel like the princess one is.

My parents, by proxy, are my usual patters, but any visitor can pat me – I’m not fussy. I like to be stroked especially under the chin – oh, it does send me to doggy heaven when they do that.

If my parents get cheeky and ignore my pleas to be patted, I would first put on the most dejected puppy dog look. If that fails then I would paw/scratch them until they take notice of little old me. After all, what are parents but sources of love and affection for their children?

On weekends, my parents give me a bone to gnaw on. This is my favourite food in the world (apart from yoghurt, tuna, ham fat… so many nice things to eat).

I like bones because they are really tasty, especially the creamy marrow. My parents are happy that I like bones because it keeps my breath sweet. The vet is happy that I like bones too. He says that I have the best teeth he has ever seen.

I try to make my bones last. I like to gnaw on them until they’re in pieces, and then come back to them again the next day, just in case there’s some flavour left. You never know!

Sometimes I get so enthusiastic with old bone bits that I end up digging a hole in search of them – by accident, of course. Other times, I bury them for further feasting a few weeks on. My parents don’t like me doing this. They say old bones give me bad breath. I usually ignore them and do it anyway.

As they say, waste not, want not.

Hello, my name is Bridie.

I’m really happy now that I have been pampered at the dog salon. I got a super wash and my nails clipped and now I’m clean and smell nice.

The only thing I didn’t like were all the little, fluffy dogs that were being washed at the same time as me. How they yap so!

And I certainly don’t like this thingyme around my neck they call a scarf. I might be a French beagle, but I don’t need to accesorise ‘cos I’m naturally beautiful.

The beagle was a bit fed up of the cold and rainy weather of recent weeks.

She was much more chirpy when the sun stuck around.