I was sat in my favourite spot. On the far end of the sofa, with a perfect view of the TV, the door and the window.

My sister, a little bit older than me but a lot more sedate and ladylike, was laid out on the floor, also watching TV, her legs splayed out awkwardly behind her.

Anxiously I glanced at the clock above the fireplace yet again. I really wanted the dog-walker to arrive soon, but he was running late. I wasn't particularly desperate to go to the toilet, but I knew that we'd be going down to the local woods, which meant there was a 95% chance of meeting my best friend, Blue, who lived near the entrance to the woods. I had some very exciting gossip to tell him.

I wasn't exactly full up after my lunch, but I was content. As I lay there, listening to another daytime chat show, I began to struggle to keep my eyes open. I wasn't sleeping – God forbid! – but I was dozing.

Suddenly there were four light knocks on the front door. My sister was up on her feet immediately, barking a warning to our mum.

“Shush!”, I shouted to her. “What are you doing? It's Jake. How come you never recognise his knock? He's been taking us out for long enough now.”

The door handle jiggled, followed by a pause and another knock.

“Are you sure it's him, though? I didn't hear the electric gate opening. And if it's Jake, why doesn't he ever just let himself in? Mum gave him a key. Crazy fool.” She continued to bark noisily.

“I've told you before. He's being polite. You know how mum sometimes sits here in just her dressing gown if she's feeling poorly. Suppose one day she wasn't quite decent. It wouldn't be very professional of him to just wander in without knocking first, would it? Now, mind out of the way. Here comes mum.”

Lorna rushed out of the kitchen, where she'd been preparing a quick snack.

“Holly! Move yer bum. Good girl.”

She dragged Holly backwards slightly, out of the way, and opened the door.

“Hi, Jake. Sorry, I didn't realise it was locked.”

In walked Jake. He had a… shall we say a ‘unique’ look. Despite the fact that he was trying to run a professional business, and most people would try to appear smart and presentable for their clients, Jake didn't bother. He had dark circles under his eyes due to lack of sleep. His hair – what there was of it - was dishevelled and often had a ‘mad-scientist’ look to it. He obviously dressed for the job, often wet, a bit sweaty, covered in paw-prints, and didn't care what people thought of him. His trousers, logo-covered jacket, and even his hat when it was a cold day, were all covered in dog-hair from various other dogs, as well as some from us. He dressed to be practical, not fashionable.

But, we didn't care. I loved him and so did my sister. There was just something about that receding hairline that was so tempting to be licked. And the best thing about Jake, the thing we both found so lovely, is that he didn't mind being licked and climbed on whenever we saw him. He always came down to our level, let us lick his fingers, his arms and then his forehead, ears and even his face if we wanted to. Most people seemed to object to this level of affection, but he actively encouraged it, to increase the bond between us. But don't get me wrong. He wasn't some kind of weirdo with a fetish. And he didn't let us lick near his mouth or give him a kiss on the lips. And he always had little bottles of sanitiser and cleaning wipes for when we'd finished saying hello.

Our previous dog-walker used to just treat us like objects. She would come in, go straight to where our leads were kept, clip them on and take us out. Although she did ‘pick up’ after us, she never spoke to us while we were out with her, and when we returned home she’d simply unclip the leads, hang them up and leave without even saying goodbye to us. There was no real interaction.

I seriously believe, though, that Jake loves us almost as much as our mum does. He's an embarrassment sometimes, though. I do wish that when we were out in public he wouldn't talk to us in that silly ‘baby-voice’ that all *** dog lovers / dog owners seem to use.

My sister loved him even more than I did. Whenever we went out for walks with him, she stuck to his side like glue. Whether we went to the local woods, the big field that took us about forty minutes to walk the perimeter of, or if we went on the public footpath which led under the railway, over the river and into the sixty-minute-field, *** these descriptions of regular routes doesn't flow very well. Rephrase. I'd be off running around, exploring the local area, whereas Holly would just walk along at the side of Jake, as close to his legs as possible, usually just plodding along at a very steady pace. She could run and walk quite fast when she wanted to, she just couldn't be bothered. If she ever stopped to do a wee and Jake kept walking or was keeping an eye on me and didn't notice her fall behind, she'd immediately break into a fast run in order to catch up with him, and then slow back to a gentle stroll again.

Basically, there are three types of humans. There are dog-people, there are cat-people, and there are people who don't like either dogs or cats. And you wouldn’t believe how easily we can tell which category you are. You don’t even need to be within sniffing distance. We can just tell if you're a dog-person or not.

However, our dog-walker, Jake, was at least a 150% dog-person. He even called his business “The Dog Bloke”. ?????

Today, he looked even more haggard than usual. I asked him what was wrong, but he just ignored me, absent-mindedly stroking my ear while he discussed something with my mum while she fetched our leads.

Mum was having one of her ‘bad days’ – we could always tell when her pain was especially bad, and on these days we'd be much more reluctant to leave her alone, and often spent the day just snuggling up to her on the sofa. But, today, Jake definitely needed our company. There was something wrong with him and I was determined to find out what it was. It was more than just tiredness or overwork.

On many occasions Jake brought his mum along on our walks too. He didn’t really need an assistant to help walking us, as we are both only small and easy for one person to walk. But she enjoyed getting out more, getting some light exercise and enjoying the fresh air. And meeting us, of course. She was nice, and almost as much of a dog-lover as Jake. Almost.