Talk of the Town

THERE was a lucky escape for one dog this week after she failed to look before leaping.

Shona the golden retriever was walking alongside Seafield Cemetery with owner Lewis Thomson when she enthusiastically bounded over a 4ft wall beside the path. Unfortunately for her she then plunged down the 20ft drop that she hadn't spotted on the other side.

Mr Thomson found Shona – still attached to her extendable lead – had landed on the roof of a parked car in the cemetery. When he dashed round to find her he was relieved to find that she was unharmed.

This wasn't Shona's first adventure as she previously had to be fished out of a pond in Lochend by firefighters.

Perhaps that extendable lead ought to be reined in a bit for her own safety.

Vince's stand-in steps up

THE Liberal Democrats had to cancel a planned walkabout in the Capital by ballroom dancer and finance spokesman Vince Cable when his flight was cancelled because of the volcanic cloud yesterday.

Over in Fife, anyone turning up for Vince's visit to Dunfermline would have found Scottish Lib Dem leader Nicol Stephen in his place. All very well, but can he dance?

Colin takes the biscuit

EVERYONE knows good weather makes a huge difference to campaigning, as Scottish Socialist Colin Fox, who is standing in Edinburgh South West, can testify.

He and a group of SSP activists descended on Stenhouse last Sunday afternoon. And while the others delivered leaflets, Mr Fox did a spot of canvassing among the voters who were out in their gardens, enjoying the sunshine.

One family insisted he sit down and have a cup of tea and a Kit-Kat and the hospitality was repeated several times over. "It took me an hour and three quarters to do Stenhouse Avenue and I had four cups of tea," said Mr Fox. The leafletters were less than impressed to return and find their candidate sitting and chatting in the sun.

Moving research for pets

THINGS often get left behind when moving house, but now it is claimed that families in the Capital are purposely ditching their pets rather than taking them to their new abode.

According to new research, more than a quarter of Edinburgh residents leave their pets behind when moving house.The poll, carried out on behalf of pet behaviour products Feliway and DAP, found that 26 per cent of residents in the Capital have given their pet away when moving house.

However, when asked what pet owners thought was the most stressful event for a pet, moving house topped the survey, with 77 per cent stating that the experience was equally or more stressful for their animal than it was for them.

So, perhaps it's a case of being cruel to be kind?