CHARLES Dickens said: “What greater gift than the love of a cat”? (Portfolio, Herald Magazine, August 26) The Greek 14th century scholar Theodorus Gaza said: “The gift I am sending you is called a dog, and is in fact the most precious and valuable possession of mankind”.

Ambrose Bierce opined: “Dog. A kind of additional or subsidiary deity designed to catch the overflow and surplus of the world’s worship”.

I think that dogs have it, but others will disagree. Perhaps the scale will be tipped in favour of dogs, as Milan Kundera said: “Dogs are our link to Paradise”.

Thelma Edwards,

Old Comrades Hall, Hume, Kelso.