Welcome to "Man with two dogs" - the family website for dog owners and dog walkers.

OUR HOLIDAY cottage in Sutherland had a magical view across the Kyle of Tongue and the Rabbit Islands and in the distance we could see Mainland Orkney and the high sandstone cliffs of the island of Hoy. It was a return to the north coast which we last visited eleven years ago.

PROPERTY WAS once the foundation of wealth so it tells us much about the prosperity of the area that more than one thousand castles and castle ruins are recorded in the north-east of Scotland.

WHO REMEMBERS the BBC’s Hut Man? I’m probably showing my age if I can ask the question.

WE’RE ACCUSTOMED to the idea that if we have a pet, whether it’s a pony or a gerbil, we must look after it, feeding it, cleaning out its cage, exercising it. The idea that our pets help care for us – Guide Dogs for the Blind, Hearing Dogs, Riding for the Disabled, for instance – is the other side of the caring coin.

WIDE AWAKE at 4.30 in the morning – at this time of year I wake up as dawn starts breaking. As often as not this spring it’s been the best part of the day with the early sun keeking through the trees. I think there must be leverets in the woods at the back of the house because there’s a hare that sits on the grass outside the kitchen window and moves quietly on when I go down to make a cup of tea.

THERE’S A large population of jackdaws in the woods round the house. They are noisy birds at the best of times but just now it’s mostly the chicks I hear, constantly calling the parent birds, demanding food.