I doubt there are many Bulletin readers who are old enough to remember the 1963 Disney film ‘The Incredible Journey’. Luath – a golden labrador, Bodger – an aging bull terrier, and Tao – a Siamese cat make a perilous journey across the Canadian wilderness to get to their home 300 miles away. As a little girl I sat in the Ritz Cinema with tears flowing because it seemed inevitable that Bodger had died in the final few miles of the journey. Of course he hadn’t. He trotted over the horizon to an ecstatic welcome from his animal and human family.

I was reminded of Bodger and his fictional achievement when I read about a dog called Pip. Last year Pip’s owner took him for a run in Leigh Woods, a beauty spot in Bristol. They became separated, and Pip’s frantic owner took to social media to get help finding him. Pip was soon spotted on the city’s security cameras. He crossed Brunel’s iconic suspension bridge, ran past the famous BBC studios in Whiteladies Road and was captured on camera running by the steps of the museum. Somehow he safely negotiated the notoriously dangerous traffic in the city centre and found his way to his front garden in Bedminster – about four miles from where he’d left his owner. In fact he got home before she did!