I look forward to my weekly trips to The Menagerie. Well, it’s not actually the menagerie I look forward to – it’s seeing H, R and P. They’ve always got so much to tell me and inevitably they all try to do it at once. I’m thinking of investing in a Dictaphone so I can record what they say and play it back later ( I might have to think that through properly first).

This week, as I got through the door the first discernible word I heard was ‘Squirrel!’

‘Squirrel?! What? Huh?’ I said desperately trying not to believe they now had a squirrel as a pet (since I last wrote they have acquired another ‘dog’ but I shall write about it – sorry, him – another time).

‘Next door have got a squirrel!’ P said.

And now they’ll want one too no doubt, I thought.

‘Next door have got a squirrel in their roof!’ H clarified.

Things were beginning to make sense. A squirrel had chewed a whole in the eaves of the house next door and was now nesting in their roofspace. I have to confess that the first thought I had was ‘At least I don’t have to shell out for a new roof and pest control’.

Then something occurred to me.

The girls’ Uncle has been staying at The Menagerie for free for the last few weeks. I don’t mind, of course, but I have yet to install self-mowing grass for his pleasure if you get my drift.

He’s struggling for work at the moment but he’s a roofer by trade. Ideal then that a job should come up next door! Surely he can’t argue about that not being local.

And if I can capture the rogue squirrel maybe I can let it loose on other roofs in the street to keep Uncle in regular work.