A DOG is for life, not just for lockdown. So we found ourselves in parental lecture mode when our grown-up son (I use that terminology loosely, although he’s definitely our son) broke the news he’d acquired a puppy.

This did not come out of the blue. He has dreaming of owning a dog for a long time now, and we had managed to keep the notion on a tight leash. We also had a tip-off from a neighbour whose daughter has been a pal of our son’s since pre-school. We bumped into her while out for a walk and she let slip about the puppy, assuming that his parents would be aware of this rather significant development. As if. In my experience, a good starting point is the assumption that parents know nothing.

So we had a week or so to have the he-doesn’t-have-the-brains-he-was-born-with conversations and vent our exasperation.

But he’s not that daft. He broke the news of the new arrival on his birthday, when he knew he wouldn’t get a hard time. Plus he knows that, deep down, we’re pushovers when it comes to dugs. Several pics on Facebook later and we were besotted.

Meanwhile, with news of a gradual and phased relaxation of lockdown rules, there are many things we are looking forward to.

Head Gardener is running out of outdoor jobs, so he’s fantasising about a trip to Dobbie’s. Maybe we could get another clematis for the gap left by the savage pruning of the existing one.

With his Personal Training cap on, I’m sure he’s also devising an extension of the boot-camp regime. There are only so many burpees you can do in the living room. We might be able to venture farther afield to find a steep hill to run up dragging a tyre. Can’t wait.

To date, it must be said, we have been extremely fortunate with access to the outdoors and have enjoyed daily exercise on a golf course which sits on our doorstep. Alas, with what was a lifting-of-lockdown-limitations lifeline for golfers came the realisation that we will have to relinquish our wanderings on the fairways. It was lovely while it lasted, though.

Perhaps we could take up fishing, or bowls. Or how about croquet? Hats off to Nicola Sturgeon for keeping a straight face when asked, at First Minister’s Questions by Tom Mason, the Tory list MSP for the North East, if he could now satisfy his penchant for hitting wee balls through hoops with a big wooden mallet.

Sturgeon replied that sports listed in the framework document published last week were “illustrative, and not exhaustive”.

She added: “I’m not sure I’m giving an undertaking to specifically add croquet to the published document but I’m open to lobbying on that basis.”

I’m sure Scotland’s many croquet players will be putting pen to paper.

Meanwhile, what I’m looking forward to with much anticipation as we ease our way into the new normal is meeting a puppy which we tried our hardest to disapprove off.

Oh, I’d quite like to see my son too, I suppose.