I don’t know how it came about but Biggles has developed an acute sensitivity to the word “pussycat”:

Now it’s true that we do encounter cats from time to time on our local walks, and when we do Biggles (and Beanie too) will go ballistic if the following criteria are met:

• The cat is a safe distance away
• Beanie & Biggles are on their leads and cannot possibly come face to face with the cat (which might reveal their inability to win a fight with it)
• The cat is not very big and appears more scared of them than they are of it

When we encounter a suitably “woof-at-able” moggy I generally refer to said feline as simply “cat”, not “pussycat”. Nevertheless, use the word “pussycat” anywhere near Biggles and you get the same reaction as in the above video. In fact the video itself is enough to put him on red alert! As I was playing the clip back while writing this post he kicked off at the trigger word, then both he and Beanie started woofing at the recording of him woofing, which is starting to get a bit circular. I suppose I could video that reaction too, then play it back and video the two of them howling at their reaction to the reaction and so on.

Anyway the mystery of how Biggles became so sensitive to the “P” word remains. Something he learned as a tiny pup before he came to us? Something he saw on TV? One thing’s for sure: most of the time I don’t have the first idea what’s going on in Biggles’ head, and I’m pretty sure that Biggles doesn’t either.