‘Hey, girl,’ I called as we approached. Her head snapped up, and the rest of her followed, suddenly a ball of energy again. I was seriously falling for the mutt. ‘Shall we head back to the square and get you a treat?’

She seemed very excited at the prospect. She must have spoken some English as well as Greek because she led us off, just like I’d said. Or, maybe the word ‘treat’ was universal to all dogs.

‘I love this dog,’ I said as we followed her.

‘Yeah, she’s sweet. And smart too – she seems to understand us.’

‘I was just thinking how she must speak English as well as Greek.’

He laughed. ‘Yeah, she’s definitely bilingual.’

Then our incredibly smart dog spied a cat on a wall. They both stood stock still and eyed each other off. The cat was fat with orange stripes, and it looked like it had been around the block many, many times. It had a scar over its left eye, and half of its right ear was missing. Our dog started a low growl and the cat responded in kind. The standoff continued with neither of them moving. And then without warning, the cat took off along the wall in the other direction, leapt off, landed deftly and ran around a corner.

Our dog took off after the cat, and I thought it would be the end of our tour. But no. A few minutes later she rounded the corner at a casual lope with her tongue hanging out of her mouth. She looked like she was smiling. The cat was nowhere to be seen.

‘Did you chase away that big, ugly kitty?’ I asked her as she accepted my praising pat on her head.

‘Good girl.’ Josh ruffled her ears, which she took as her cue to continue our journey back to the square – at least, that’s where I hoped we were going – she wasn’t taking us on the same route we’d come. I wasn’t too concerned, though. If we headed downhill, we were going in the right direction.

Not long after the cat episode, we spilt out from a narrow street back into the main square. She looked at us like, ‘See? I knew where I was taking you the whole time.’ And if it’s possible for a dog to express pride, she looked well pleased with herself.

‘I think we should get her something,’ I said to Josh, as I walked towards a little snack stall at the edge of the square.

He followed me, but when I arrived, I was disappointed to see that we were somewhat limited in our choices of treats. I ended up buying two bottles of water – one for her and one for us – and a packet of chips. I poured water into my cupped hand and she lapped it up greedily. ‘I wonder where she usually drinks from.’