‘That you can be bought. You were just moaning about how Daniel is your friend and we absolutely have to help him and so on and so forth. And now? No sooner does some actor come along and send you a piece of sausage than Daniel is old news. Who ever started the rumour that dogs are as loyal as gold?’ Mr Beck shakes his head in disgust. ‘I thought you wanted to tell me about a great plan; instead, I’m stuck listening to this gourmet sausage garbage. My time is too precious to waste on that.’

‘But, but,’ I stammer sheepishly, ‘you said yourself that you don’t think anything is going to come of Daniel and Caroline, and I was just going to tell you that you’re absolutely right. Why are you so annoyed with me now?’

‘Maybe I’m disappointed that I’m right. Maybe I had kept hoping that you would turn out to be right and that a cat and a dachshund could achieve more than I would ever have thought possible after all. Somehow you carried me away with your optimism. I would have been glad to see it work out between the two of them. And now this!’

I hang my head. ‘Sorry,’ I whisper.

‘Don’t misunderstand me – you can’t help it that nothing is coming of Daniel and Caroline. But the idea of you running straight to this Jens!’

‘OK, fine! I was just glad that he was worried about me. And it’s the first time in my life that a human has written me a letter!’

‘Good grief, are you naïve! He wasn’t worried about you! He wanted to impress Caroline! That’s it. And then he’d get a chance at another date.’

‘You think so?’

‘It’s quite obvious. What did Daniel say about it? It can’t be all that great when you yourself have just been given the brush-off and the next guy is already standing on the doorstep. It must have hurt him to find out that Caroline actually planned to go out with Jens last night.’

‘Yeah, that really was odd: Caroline didn’t tell him that she actually had a date with Jens and that it fell apart because I was sick. She claimed that I had keeled over back in the bank, and that Jens noticed it.’

‘Ah, a little white lie.’

‘White lie?’

‘Think about it. Caroline didn’t want to hurt Daniel’s feelings with the story of how Jens came to send a gourmet sausage for dogs. After all, he’s her best friend.’

‘And then you’re allowed to lie? Even though dishonesty is such a bad thing? At least that’s what my old master kept saying.’

‘He’s right about that as a rule. A white lie is still a lie. But sometimes people lie so as not to hurt someone, and that’s not quite as bad. It falls more into the category of putting a good spin on things.’