Walking along the beach on my usual dog walk enjoying the sound of the waves crashing and the sea gulls squawking. Ray chased back and forth in his kelpie dashes.

A regular dog walker that I recognised was about 500 meters away, one of those long haired shaggy dogs always friendly and happy to see my Ray loping along. Equally the owner always happy to smile or wave.

Between us a new fella and his big Alsatian on the lead, I looked to Ray ready to call him and leash him as did the other woman with her dog. However as we approached him from either side of the small cove he retreated into the bush land with his dog and sat quietly.

Ray hadn’t yet spotted the Alsatian, too intent on catching those seagulls, (with no actual hope of that whatsoever!). Neither had the shaggy dog as he gave Ray a quick sniff. The Alsatian and owner now camouflaged in the undergrowth. We all carried on our walks.

Consideration, respect and kindness sometimes doesn’t even need to start with a smile!