We were walking from pen to pen looking at the remaining dogs on our list. Each dog we visited barked at us, hurled himself at the wire door, tried to jump out over fence to us or ran around wagging its tail excitedly. All except one.

I thought the cage was empty because there was no noise coming from it. There was a dog in there however, sitting quietly in the centre of the pen smiling and looking up at the sky. I looked up at the sky, there was nothing there. I looked back at the dog, he was looking at me, as soon as I looked back at him he looked at the sky again. The rest of the family joined me at the gate and looked at the dog.

" Who have you got in here." said Polyester.

The dog looked at us all and stopped smiling. He then held up his front paw shivered and gave a very pathetic whimper.

" Arr pore thing he's got a poorly front paw." said Monomer.

The dog looked at me, I looked at the dog. I knew the dog had not hurt his front paw and what's more the dog knew I knew he had not hurt his front paw. He just looked at me as if to say, 'what do you want me to do juggle'.

I found my self standing in the cage with my wife and two daughters petting and cuddling the dog. The dog was enjoying all the fuss and licking Etherline. It took a moment off from licking Etherline and the children to turned his head towards me, as our eyes met he said, " Now try going home with out me."

" Pardon." I said out loud.

" I didn't say anything." said Etherline

I looked at the dog, it looked at me. It was smiling again. It can't have said anything. I'm just going out of my head looking at all these dogs I thought.

To this day I can not remember saying that we would have the dog or even a family discussion about it. The next thing I remember was the Dog Warden handing me the end of a peace of string and being told we would be very happy with him. I was then walking to the car holding this string, on the other end of the string was this dog who seemed to have a rather peculiar walk.

The dog sat in the back seat of the car directly behind me. I felt something wet hit me across the back of the neck. It was the dog licking me.

" You can cut that out." I shouted in what I hoped sounded like a vary masterful voice.

" What's his name daddy." said Polyester.

" I don't know." I said. "They never told us."

" It's on that form he gave you. " said Polyester.

I took the small yellow paper from my pocket and unfolded it. In very scribbled handwriting it gave the very few details the dogs home knew about the dog.

" He appears to answer to the name of Digger." I said. " He's a stray found abandoned on the moors and sleeps alot. Breed unknown it says."

" He's lovely. " said Monomer giving the dog a hug.

" Are you sure we've done the right thing." I said looking at the large number of blank areas on the form.

" Of course we have. " said Etherline.

The dog gave me another large lick at the back of my neck completely soaking my shirt collar. This did not seem to be a very good start to the responsibilities of dog ownership. I started the car and we drove home.

For better or worse we now owned a dog.