The only friends on the daily walk are the four-legged ones...

There seem to be a few basic boxes which need ticking before you can consider calling someone a friend.

- with Mike Hill

Things like knowing what the other person's name is, for example.

Only pre-school children with their newly-made holiday friends down at the paddling pool can get away with that kind of knowledge gap.

And yet, for reasons best known to my Mum, she insists on referring to anyone I regularly see while walking her dog in the morning as 'doggy walking friends'.

So when I return her suitably exercised pet she will ask if I 'met' any of 'my' doggy walking friends.