Lola is a tennis ball fiend and this one is one of her current projects. She’s very carefully denuded it of its yellow baize covering before presenting it to me for throwing. I wouldn’t mind only the said yellow felt is now liberally strewn over our living room carpet. That wouldn’t even be so bad had the carpet not been cleaned of the previous covering of the same only today. When we got her, her Mum and Dad’s owners told us how her Mum, Hazel, would cart her tennis ball to the top of the stairs and chuck it down herself before chasing it down, then taking back to the top of the stairs for a repeat performance, doing it over and over again without obvious signs of weariness. Lola too, will happily do the same. It’s odd then that her latest game involves this peeling of the ball before use. We have a dog whose whole existence seems to revolve around tennis balls and preferably as manky and skanky as possible, especially when they are being thrown for her!