When I come home from work there is a strange ritual in our house. Archie comes dashing to the front door wagging his tail and prostrating himself on the floor, desperate for some attention. Rosie lies at the top of the stairs looking anxious until Archie has had his fuss, then she flies downstairs, like the proverbial bat out of hell, straight past me and to the back door.

She’s strange because she always looks really anxious yet of course nothing bad ever happens to her.

Today, I came home from two days shut in a room with a dozen or so of my colleagues after a gruelling two days discussing another of our key accounts (a really important customer) to the usual homecoming.

What’s interesting though is that once she’s got over her initial response, she is all over me. Today has been no exception. I needed to get onto my computer to check work emails and to sort and process a number of photos, some for Sarah and some for work so I’ve been on my PC for a couple of hours.

Rosie sits in the doorway and when I need a think and lean back in my chair, she leaps onto my knee, slobbering freely and attempting to insert her tongue into my nostrils. She has no fear and no sense of finesse. She simply clambers all over me until I get fed up and push her off.

The week before last, I posted a photo of Archie with Ian’s raggy and I thought as Rosie had been so determined to get some attention off me that it was her turn to get her photo on PBASE with the same toy. What’s odd is that she won’t take it from me or tug it if I’m holding it (or if DM is, for that matter) all she’ll do is let it fall to the floor. I sat her on the paper, got her in a sit:stay and tried to get her to take the toy from me but she dropped it onto the floor. I got one attempt at the photo before she was off charging across the room to see me and thankfully it was sharp and reasonably well composed. So, here’s Rosie, my favourite little girl, my baby.