TRAVEL TRIBES

Sophie knows it’s anti-social to be staring at her phone instead of making chit-chat with other travellers on the Galapagos cruise. “Just one more video of Cashew being completely adorable,” she silently vows, and watches a final clip of her cockapoo rolling around on her friend Suzy’s lawn, before reluctantly popping her iPhone in her daypack.

She grimaces dutifully at the others tucking into breakfast.

“Golly, people are such a strange species,” she thinks as she watches the thirtysomething banker who loudly asks for all meals “gluten-free” guiltily pick at his girlfriend’s croissant, huffing every time she points out that if he really wants a croissant there are plenty in the basket. “Cashew, meanwhile, always knows what she wants,” thinks Sophie, wistfully. “And what Cashew wants is… me.”

Sophie strangles a sob into her napkin, and gets up hurriedly to wander the length of the breakfast buffet away from the prying eyes of her fellow humans. All she sees there, however, are sausages and bacon rashers that Cashew would simply love.

She feels a pang of jealousy towards

Suzy, back home in Edinburgh, who gets to walk Cashew in the rain, while Sophie is stuck on a posh boat in the Galapagos.

She starts mentally counting the days until her stupid trip of a lifetime is over, but is interrupted by a commotion up on deck. “We’ve got marine iguanas!” beams the enthusiastic marine biologist.

Sophie sighs. To her, there is only one animal in the world right now.