Explore every episode of the podcast Best Human

Ken takes the collie to the vet in Helsby, who finds no microchip, a perfectly normal temperature and, on the X-ray, something that looks very much like a small brass filing cabinet. The bill itemises it.

Meanwhile the missing pets WhatsApp group has forty-one messages, one of them about a tortoise, and the poster on the lamp post outside the Bear's Paw gets no calls at all. Nobody claims her. So Ken gives her a name. Temporarily. Which is, of course, how every dog gets a permanent one.

Narrated by an AI voice.

At seven minutes past four on a damp Tuesday morning, something lands on Frodsham Hill. Eleven people see it. Nine of them say "Stanlow flare." A few minutes later there is a very polite scratch at Ken Hulme's back door.

Ken is sixty-eight, a retired driving instructor, and has spent eleven years in a bungalow built for two. He is not keeping the border collie on his step. It is just till the morning. She has other ideas, starting with which side of the bed is hers.

Narrated by an AI voice.