The birth of a baby is said to be a life changing experience where primate brain, once focused on life’s necessities to feed and shelter, shifts gear into misty-eyed obsession for a familial bundle….but what if the baby is covered with fur? Do we get the same, overwhelming feeling of contentment, social recognition and kinship if our chosen mammalian progeny has four legs instead of two?

Their are definitely some draw backs to being a big-boned Labrador. I started getting sore ankles at 3 years old and was diagnosed with a problem called osteochondrosis dissecans-my cartilage was weak and my hock joints collapsed inwards. Now 6 years on I suffer severe osteoarthritis or degenerative joint disease so lucky my Mum is …

Sometimes guidance is necessary to help ‘look’ into your life and figure out just what’s going wrong. One helpful professional advised ‘you need to stand still and take 5 minutes a day not to look- but to see’.I had no idea what she was getting at, but being an ‘A-type’ personality I went about the task, as if an assignment, and was astounded by the results.