PHEASANTS 1 - BARNEY 0

Every picture tells a story and this one is no exception. Our walk this morning was up on the North Downs where, even in this busy area of Kent, there are still large tracts of countryside where you can `get away from it all.`

Barney and I went across an open field and then through a little wood before coming out onto a footpath that`s high up above the Medway Valley. No-one else around, although we did hear a few gunshots in the distance which disturbed the local pheasants. Some of them were silly enough to take to the skies and Barney thought this was a good game, so off he charged through the undergrowth and through the trees, all the while sending more and more pheasants squawking skywards.

Of course, it`s in the nature of golden retrievers to retrieve pheasants that have been shot down, so maybe Barney was getting some practice in or simply following his natural instinct. Either way, thankfully he didn`t catch any and after a while he gave up, exhausted... and that`s when I took this picture, which says it all really.