Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

There is a BBC article here that elaborates on what I wrote about yesterday: the cleverness of rooks. Rather helpfully, it comes complete with a number of videos, so that now we can see their stone-picking, hook-making intelligence for ourselves. Even second time round reading it, the story still amazes me.

And as far as amazing animals go, there is dog that has saved its owners life in Michigan. Now, ordinarily, this isn’t the most unusual story: I have heard a great many stories over the years, telling of dogs and cats (and other animals too) that have saved their owners from all sorts of dangers. But this one is special, and made more powerful, because the dog in question is terminally ill. It was supposed to be put down, but the owner decided against it.

Putting myself in his shoes – even so much as thinking about the decision he made, is difficult. I have two dogs of my own, and I wouldn’t want them to be in pain at all. And whilst it’s true that if I knew they were in pain, I would want to help them out (and do whatever it took to help them out) even so much as thinking about putting them down scares me – a lot.

But whilst I’m not sure what I’d do if I were in his situation, I’m certainly glad that he made the decision he did.

And I wish both him and his dog well.