My name is Daniel, and I have a cockroach problem.

The first: a few days after I moved in, on the front doorstep. I squashed it with a boot.

The second: a couple of weeks ago, jumping out from the cupboard underneath the sink. It scurried away and escaped.

The third: last night in the pantry, in a packet of fettucini. Sigh. Chucked all the pasta out. Time to find the spaghetti jar and start packing all my food in sealed containers.

The fourth: I got on the train this morning and got the newspaper out of my bag. As if from nowhere, a cockroach appeared. Had it come from my bag? Did I have a stowaway? I couldn’t tell. A couple of people stared wide-eyed as it crawled across the carriage. I wasn’t sure if I should stomp on it. It went and hid underneath someone else’s seat. Maybe it thought the inspectors would ask for its ticket.

A thorough search of my bag when I got to work didn’t find any more. But eek, gonna have to clean the house thoroughly and take precautions against them.

Marita and Justine’s dog Maisie doesn’t like a lot of things, but she does like chasing other animals. Rabbits, cats, birds…

By far her favourite type of bird to chase looks a little like a pigeon, but has a pointy head, and makes a funny noise when it flies. This delights Maisie, and when she chases a few of them and they all take off at once making the funny noise, she’ll often let out a joyous “Woof!” for all to hear.

I’ve noticed some of these birds are sometimes in my street. When nobody’s looking, I’ll chase them on Maisie’s behalf, just so I too can elicit their funny flying noise.