Doggy Tales

The grand old Potts clock on Newark Northgate station is still wrong on both faces, but who looks at it anyway, when there is a modern digital display right alongside - apart from me, that is?

Nothing stands still for long [except the Potts clock]. Below it, there is now a watering bowl for dogs. As it says on the board, they are looking after all their customers, even the four-legged ones, though I suppose that they might draw the line at - well, any number of other quadrupeds, really.

Gone are the days that unaccompanied livestock in numbers travelled by train, either alive or dead. From cattle trucks and “The Fish” to the invisible “coo-ing” from the crates of pigeons stacked up on the platform trolleys, it is all reminiscent of another age.

I hope dogs realise just how lucky they are to be singled out for such special treatment these days. Earlier this summer, we were sitting in a pub garden in Totnes, when I realised that the pram at the next table was occupied by a dog and not a baby. On closer inspection, its design suggested that that was the clear intention. That was a first, I thought.

One of the differences that our son has noticed living in the States is that entrepreneurs don’t miss a trick when it comes to making a quick buck. The proliferation of doggy shops shows the way things are going and this one was certainly on the ball. Hurricane warnings are full of foreboding for some but apparently provide opportunities for others.

Contrast all this with the lack of attention you can sometimes receive with only two legs to stand on.  The typical English afternoon tea shop frequently seems to flip its “We are Open” notice on the glass panel in the door to coincide with afternoon tea time. Just in time to get across the threshold at a Peak District example recently, we were then met with, “Sorry, the kitchen has just closed”, as though going through one door and putting on the grill for a tea-cake is well beyond rational thought. It’s so removed from established practice that it would take a full-length hospitality course solely addressing the notion of “service” to put things right. Its just not going to happen. Oh, and learn to smile, as well, actually, when you are offering me that last dried-up piece of cake that’s fallen over - apart from the bit that’s welded to the plate.

Maybe I’ll just take in a “fur baby” with me next time. That’s obviously where the action is, if service is what you’re after.