The first puppy has opened his eyes. I wonder what he is making of the world he is now part of. To be honest, my eyes have been open for quite a while and I still marvel at the mess that humans can make of things. I can’t but feel a bit sorry for the thirteen year old boy who may or may not have become a father. If it isn’t bad enough to have your entire life plastered across the tabloid press, then finding another couple of lads come forwards and say it could be them, can’t do a great deal for his confidence in himself or his girlfriend. To be faced with a paternity test at thirteen seems a little excessive. It makes you wonder what they are trying to prove. Given the circumstances is one of the boys going to provide the baby with a stable home or are they looking to claim child support from their pocket money? At least there is no expectation of moral behaviour on a dog. It means that no one comments on what we do when it comes to procreation and no one feels the need to plaster it all over the newspapers so that others can read of our plight. Stray dogs and alley cats would have an interesting time doing paternity tests to see who had fathered which litter. Humans do their best to work out the lineage of mongrels by saying ‘It seems to have the ears of a Jack Russell and I’m sure there is a bit of whippet in there if you look at the body.’ Non-pedigree dogs can be a bit of an odd mix, but then I guess non-pedigree humans can be too! Come to that, I don’t think there are really any pedigree humans. I think they’re all mongrels somewhere down the line. If you think about it, all of my breed originate from one small valley in Switzerland. There aren’t many humans these days whose ancestors have all come from one small area for generations.