"I warn you, Puggles,” I said, wagging my finger a safe distance from the dog’s wrinkled nose,“any nonsense and it’s straight back home with you.”The pug just turned and started running towards the park, dragging me right through a puddle in the process.
Ten minutes earlier Vera, his elderly owner, had been setting out on her morning constitutional when the little monster had suddenly lunged at a passing poodle, pulling Vera into a hawthorn bush.
I was just arriving home from a night shift at the care home and wanted nothing more than a cup of hot chocolate and eight hours sleep, but since Vera is my neighbour and a sweetheart to boot, in a moment of madness I’d volunteered.“Thank you, Emily. Only please don’t let him off the lead,” she’d begged.