My friend replied to my text with seven sets of animal paw prints, interspersed with pink hearts and rounded off with a cat face.

This was in reply to me telling her it had been nice to see her when she stayed with us in West Cork.

I squinted at these emojis, trying to make out whether I was looking at ‘What a lovely country house you have’ or ‘What a dump! Cats and dogs everywhere, which is obviously your thing, but I won’t be coming again’.