It's been more than 16 years Give a bark or two since a feisty young lady entered our home and stamped her indelible mark on the house of Marsden-Hill in 199 Main Road, Hermanus.

The advent of her arrival further flustered Strider, a giant of a gentleman dog, confronted by a female tartar barely able to make 6 inches ground clearance at the shoulder blades. Her debut turn was to grip Striders lip with her teeth and swing him into submission. Something he readily complied with in typical good humour.

And this was the inauspicious beginnings of one of nature's most incongruous love stories. One that lasted for approximately 15 years and only died...