Sniff

 Our local walks progress at a stop and go pace as the dogs take time to check the peemail and urinal messaging sites, sometimes in odd places...

 Of course with setters it's not just about the local dogs, it's also a lot to do with hunting...Sherlock is letting me know he's on to something...

 Much to the discomfort of this wee stray, one of a family in an unoccupied house soon to be torn down. They are protected from the crows by the overgrown garden and trees, so it will be a mighty shock to them when their habitat is destroyed. Fortunately for them taxes on razed lots are much higher and if you include the prohibitive cost of destroying the house and disposing of the materials this mostly only happens when the old people finally pass, their heirs agree on what to do, and the greedy developers move in to build three or four new houses on the same plot; which means abandoned dilapidated houses abound in Japanese cities.

 Sherlock, while an expert cat sniffer, is not a cat chaser...he likes cats. Nobunaga has had many a battle with this cat even through the fence, and a bloody scratch on his nose before I could drag him away howling with excitement...